Journeying back
by Ukari-chan
Summary: Based off the videogame After Kururugi Kaname is sent back to her own time, deep depression sets in for everyone. But kagome has an idea to get their friend back once and for all.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hi everyone! This fanfic is going to be a little different than all my other fanfics. This one actually doesn't have my own character. Instead, it's kind of based on the Inu Yasha video game: The Secret of the Cursed Mask. I just recently finished the game. The ending was so sad, that I cried! Now, to try to get rid of all that sadness, I'm writing this fic as a sort of a sequel to the game! In the game, you can name your character, so I just stuck with the name the game kind of sets up at first. Well, I hope you like this story! Please R&R!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu Yasha, the characters, or the rights to the video game…I own the video game, just not the rights…

* * *

**Journeying Back**

Kururugi Kaname stared into the flames as the wooden dolls slowly burned. She felt someone bump into her, jarring her out of her nostalgic reverie.

"I'm sorry," a saddening familiar voice rang in her ears. She turned around to face something that made her want to burst into tears.

"Sango…" The apparition smiled and disappeared. It was because of the wooden doll. The one she wrote Sango's name on. Now all the dolls were ashes. She would have to wait an entire year to be able to see Sango, or anyone else for that matter, again. And then, only for a moment.

The festival was over and Kaname sat on her bed, staring at the floor. She had just been through so much, met so many people and made so many friends. Now that Utsugi was gone, Kaname doubted she would ever be able to see her friends from the Feudal era ever again.

Kaname felt as though she had finally had friends that she could talk to about anything. But now they were gone. They were gone for good.

The tears that Kaname had kept locked up all started to stream out. This sudden realization had been too much. She pulled her knees to her chest and started sobbing into them.

* * *

Kagome, Sango, Shippo, Inu Yasha, and Miroku sat in front of Kururugi shrine. They had just finished burying Utsugi. They were all silent, no one daring to say anything, lest one of them could no longer contain their sadness. It was hardest on Shippo, him being the youngest. His eyes were already overflowing with tears. His bottom lip quivering. He could no longer control himself. Shippo's restraint broke. He started to cry. 

Like a domino effect, one by one, the other's restraint broke as well and their sadness burst forth.

"Why did she have to leave like that?" Kagome said between her sobs. Inu Yasha did his best to comfort her, but it was hard when, he too, was greatly affected by the loss of their newest teammate.

Sango hung her head as non-stop tears rolled down her face. They had been so close. Sango had opened up to her and she had been there for Sango. Sango had told her about Kohaku and she had done her best to help in any way that she could.

Miroku sat silently, a sad look on his face. He stared at the floor, thinking about their friend that left all too suddenly. She was nice to everyone and tried to get along. It was too hard watching her go.

They all had the same thought on their mind: Will they ever get to see Kururugi Kaname again?

* * *

"Kaname! Dinner's ready!" Kaname's mother called up the stairs. 

"I'm not hungry," she muttered into her knees.

"Honey? What's wrong?" her mother asked, knocking on the door.

"N-nothing…"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." Kaname fought to keep the tears from falling again.

"Alright. If you get hungry, the food will be in the refrigerator."

"Thanks." Kaname heard her mother's footsteps go down the stairs. Once again, she began to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks. Even though she wiped at the tears, they wouldn't stop. Why would they? She was too sad and heartbroken to stop.

Why did it have to end so suddenly? She had grown so attached to that place, to the people there. Wasn't there anyway for her to get back?

"Wait, what was it that Kagome said? The Bone-Eater's well? That's how she got there...right? I think that's what she said when I first met her...Maybe...I could find it? If I did, though, would I really be able to go back? Is there anyway for me to get back?" Kaname muttered under her breath as she sat up. This time, when she wiped away her tears, new ones didn't immediately replace them. She took a deep shuttering breath.

"Maybe my mom knows that place. I could always ask her...Then maybe I will get back! But...what about time? When Utsugi made me travel into Feudal Japan, and I came back, it was at almost the exact moment I left. But will the time frame be the same? Oh well...It doesn't matter. I'll probably never get back anyway." Kaname fell back down on her bed, tears in quick succession falling down her cheeks. She didn't care any more. She may as well accept the fact that she'll never get back. Never see any of them again. It'd be easier to admit defeat.

'It's horrible to think about it...but...it's true. It'd be better if I just accept the fact that I won't ever see them again... Well, actually...' Kaname sat up. 'Kagome is from this time... She goes to school here... There's still the chance that I'd be able to see her again... when she comes for school...So...All is _not_ lost!'

Kaname smiled and stood up. She wiped away the tears, a little hope returning to her. 'I guess…I might have been overreacting… and now that that's over… I'm hungry…' Kaname went down the stairs into the kitchen to join her parents for dinner.

* * *

Everyone still had heavy hearts as they walked back to Kaede's village. They had finally defeated Naraku, however the achievement didn't mean much to them. The only reason they were able to defeat him was because Kaname was able to destroy the barrier that had kept them powerless for so long. Any joy possibly brought by victory was shot down by depression. Even Inu Yasha, whose style was to shake off any mis-happenings, felt the depression. 

" Oh dear, are you all alright? You all look so down! What could possibly have happened? And where is Kaname?"

"Oh Kaede!" Kagome broke down into tears again. Sango hung her head and tried her best to keep in the pain. Everyone was affected deeply by the mention of their loss.

"Oh my. You poor, poor dears. Come in and tell Ole' Kaede what happened."

* * *

"…And…now she's gone…" 

"Oh my. You've all been through so much. Feel free to stay here as long as you like, until you feel up to continuing your journey. I realize it must be painful."

"Thank you, Lady Kaede," Sango managed to say before her voice broke.

"I-I need some air…" Kagome stood up and walked into the village. She walked past the square and towards the field.

"Hey, Girl! Your plant has grown! Do you want to collect it?" Kagome looked at him, keeping her pain hidden as well as possible.

"M-maybe later…." She called back to him.

"Alright! Suit yourself!" Kagome continued down the path, not paying attention to where she was going.

'I know this place…The Bone Eater's well. If only you could bring her back to us…Wait…what if…?' Kagome's heart swelled with hope as she dashed back to where everyone else was.

"Guys!" Everyone jumped at the sudden shouting coming from just outside the hut. They all turned towards Kagome when she ran inside.

"Wh-what's wrong Kagome?" Inu Yasha asked, worried about her.

"Guys! I just got an idea!"

"What is it?"

"Th-the Bone…Eater's well…" Kagome managed to say through her panting.

"What about the well? Did something happen, Lady Kagome?" Miroku asked her.

"Yes! But not something bad! I have a question for you all!"

"Okay, go ahead."

"How do I get here from my world?"

"The Bone Eater's well…?" Shippo asked, slightly confused, as were all of them.

"That's right! The well! And now, another question. Who else is from my world?"

"Kaname!"

"Right! What do I need to travel through the portal?"

"Jewel Shards? I don't see what that has to do with anything."

"You will soon enough!" Kagome said with a giggle. "Okay, so, who has Jewel Shards?"

"We all do…"

"Yes, but who holds them?"

"You do."

"Exactly. And when I go back home, who might I run into?"

"Kaname!"

"Oh! I see! Next time you go to your world, you'll find Kaname and bring her back with you through the Bone Eater's well!" Sango said, catching on.

"Exactly! So our friend is not lost to us forever!"

"Wow, Kagome! Do you really think this'll work?" Shippo asked, impressed with the thought.

"Definitely! How could it fail!"

"Well, I guess it could work. Kagome, when you go home, take as much as you need to find her, okay?" Inu Yasha said, trying not to seem to eager to let Kagome leave.

"Thanks, Inu Yasha. I'm thinking of leaving in the morning, since I need to study for a test anyway."

"I'm so glad everything is working out for you. I must admit I miss that girl, as well," Kaede told them. Kagome smiled, her cheek still shining from the many tears shed previously. But now there would be no need for crying. Kaname was coming back to them, and they would never lose her again.

* * *

A/N: So guys, what did you think? If you don't get it, you can say so in your review and I'll answer any questions you have for me. If you haven't played the game and want to or if you're playing, I promise not to reveal anything from the game, other than the part already revealed. Also, if you have any questions about the game itself, like if you're stuck somewhere and want help or what to know something of the plot, feel free to ask. Now, review, please! I promise to keep this story more alive than the other ones. I will also update the status of the stories on my profile. Please read my other stories! 

-Arigatou Gosaimasu!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: WOW I AM A SPAZZ!!!! I wrote chapter one of an Inu Yasha story pertaining to The Secret of The Cursed Mask game… And I just now see that someone has desperately been trying to get me to update. To R-Cleberg I AM SO SORRY! I AM THE SPAZZ QUEEN!!!! TTTT This is gonna be Chapter 2 of that story. I really liked where I was going with this too, but I got distracted by other things… I BLAME KINGDOM HEARTS!!! DX Anyway, this is the next chapter and I'll start the third chapter as soon as I finish this chapter 2. Summer is here and I have my game, so I will probably be much more inspired to WRITE THIS STORY!!! Oh and by the by, R-Cleberg. As for your question, yes! I was so gonna do that! So, be happy to know that this will probably go in a way you like!! Oh and because I am a spazz, you can either curse me out or request a drawing. I will accept both with no problems XP

* * *

**Journeying Back**

Chapter 2 

A loud ringing noise startled Kaname out of her sleep. She sat up and groggily smacked the top of her clock. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes and looked at the offensive object that woke her from her pleasant dreams. She dreamt that she was back in the Feudal Era with everyone else again. Of course, there was always the possibility that it won't just stay a dream. Kaname smiled widely as she remembered her thoughts from the night before.

Kagome, who she had become good friends with, also lived in the time she did. That meant that she had to come back _sometime_. And when she did, Kaname could try to find her. They were the same age and although she didn't know where Kagome lived, she was sure that one of her friends would know the uniform.

"Kaname, dear! Are you up yet? Breakfast is ready!" Kaname's mother called up the stairs.

"Thanks, mom! I'll be down soon!" Kaname was still smiling and it was obvious in her voice. She looked at the clock and started changing into a clean uniform. As soon as she was done, she practically floated down the stairs and sat at the kitchen table.

"Well, what do you know? You seem so much happier than last night! Did you have a good dream?" her mother asked with a smile as she served Kaname's food.

"The best dream I _could_ have!" Kaname said enthusiastically as she began eating.

"Well, that's good to hear. Your friend Tomo called last night when you were already in bed. She wanted to remind you that you were going to be 'kidnapped' by her and Sana, and they were going to force you to spend the afternoon together. She said it was because you were too busy yesterday to hang out."

"Okay, thanks for reminding me mom! I probably would have left my wallet otherwise!" Kaname told her mother with a bit of a laugh. She finished her food and put the dishes in the sink. "I'll see you later, then! Bye mom!"

"Have a good day, dear!" Kaname's mother smiled as she watched her daughter leave the house and run down the street to catch the bus.

* * *

It was early when Kagome woke up. She hadn't felt this excited about going back to her home in a long time. When there was the major possibility of finding her friend, she could barely contain her excitement. She was busily straightening out her uniform when Inu Yasha came into the hut.

"Hey, Kagome. You're gonna go back now, right?" he asked when he entered.

"Yeah. I'm going to go to school and then afterwards, I'll start looking for Kaname. Considering where you first found her, she doesn't seem to live too far away from me," Kagome said with a bit of a smile as she organized her bag.

"Then it shouldn't take too long to find her, right?" Inu Yasha said with a slightly hopeful intonation in his voice.

"Right. Besides, I'm sure one of my friends will be able to identify her uniform. Then I can know where she goes to school. After that, then it's just a matter of finding out whether or not the jewel shards work. They should, so really, she should be back here with us soon!" Kagome said with a big smile. If she could find Kaname, then she knew that things would get better.

* * *

"Kagome! We were really worried when your Grandfather told us that you had German measles!" Ayumi said as soon as she saw her friend.

'Grandpa! Why are you always coming up with weird sicknesses?!' Kagome thought angrily to herself, shaking slightly.

"Kagome…?" her friend Eri asked when Kagome seemed to space out a bit.

"Huh? Oh no! It's nothing! Never mind that!" Kagome laughed nervously and waved it off. "So! How have you guys been? It's been a while!"

"We've been just fine, Kagome! It's you we're worried about!" Yuka said with a concerned look.

"Oh, don't worry about me! I'll be fine! My immune system is starting to get better!" Kagome lied straight out. She didn't really like always having to lie, but did she really have a choice? Her friends would never believe her if she told them that she was out because she was in another time trying to piece together a jewel that held magical powers.

"I'm glad to hear you say that!" All four girls turned towards the voice.

"Hojo!"

"Hey, Kagome. I brought you a basket from my parents' health store. It has a lot of different vitamins that will help your immune system!" Hojo smiled as he got off his bike, handing Kagome the large basket he was carrying.

"U-uh… Thanks, Hojo! I'm sure it'll help!" Kagome said with a small but fake smile. "Uh, shouldn't we be getting to class?"

"Oh! Right! Today's the review for the big test! Hope you can keep up!"

"Yeah…me too…" Kagome said with a sigh and hung her head.

* * *

"Ugh. I'll never understand it before the test!" Kagome said frustratedly as she rested her chin on the table at WacDnalds. "Hey… do you guys think…?" She trailed off and looked hopefully at them.

"Nu-uh. No way. Sorry Kagome, but I need to study for this too!" Eri said, shaking her head.

"Sorry! If I don't pass this test, I might fail!" Yuka said apologetically.

"Ayumi…?" Kagome looked up as her last hope.

"I knew this was going to happen! You're lucky I was able to make copies! I knew you were going to need them and I was going to drop them off at your house today anyway!" Ayumi told her with a smile.

"Thank you so much!" Kagome cried out happily, hugging her friend.

"You're welcome! Here they are. There's a lot of stuff you missed so you'll need to study really hard tonight, okay?"

"Yes, yes! Thank you!" Kagome said triumphantly before biting into her burger.

* * *

"Here?" Kaname asked as she looked up at the large sign hanging above the fast food restaurant.

"Of course here! What better way to hang out than stuffing our faces with fattening processed foods?" Tomo said cheerfully, holding her friend's shoulders.

"If you say so…"

"C'mon you guys! Hurry up or I'll order without you!" Sana called to them, waving from the door she held open.

"Okay! C'mon, Kaname! Let's go!"

"Right, right. Okay!" Kaname said with a laugh as Tomo dragged her into WacDnalds.

"Guys, go sit over there. I'll order for us, okay?" Sana said with a smile, pointing at a large empty table in the back that was next to the window.

"Right! Sit, Kaname! So, you've seemed a little off today. What's wrong?"

"Well…" Kaname said, sitting in her chair. What exactly was she going to say? That she found a way to get back to a world that she had gone to for a long time but felt like seconds back at this time? What could she say…? And the she remembered what Sana had told her just before she had gone to Feudal Japan. "I found out that you were keeping something from me, Tomo-chan!"

"What? What am I keeping from you…?" she asked, a bit confused.

"Yesterday, Sana told me that you had a boyfriend. Why didn't you ever tell me? I thought we were best friends!"

"Oh, that? I didn't tell you because I wasn't sure about it myself! Remember that guy I told you I liked? Well, yesterday he asked me out! I couldn't find you, but I told Sana. That's why she knew and you didn't! It was just because of bad timing!" Tomo explained, hoping Kaname didn't feel left out.

"What's because of bad timing?" Sana asked as she sat down, carrying a tray that was overflowing with burgers and fries. Both girls stared at her. "What? I'm hungry! Now take your food before I eat it too!"

"O…kay…" Kaname said slowly, unwrapping a burger. "Well, we were just talking about why I didn't know about Tomo-chan…"

"What about Tomo-chan?" Sana asked, looking around at them.

"The fact that I have a boyfriend now! I told her the only reason she didn't know was because I didn't see her after he asked me out!"

"Oh! Right! Yeah… Sorry, didn't know you didn't know."

"It's okay, guys. Well, I know now, right?" Kaname said with a smile.

* * *

"You seem kind of out of it Kagome. Are you feeling okay?" Yuka asked, looking worried.

"Huh? Oh, no. I was just thinking about this girl I met a while back. I was thinking that now I'm feeling better, I could try to find her. We became close in that little time I knew her…" Kagome trailed off as she thought about Kaname and the fact that she might actually find her.

"Well, what does she look like? Do you know what school she goes to?" Eri asked, resting her head on her folded hands as she looked at Kagome.

"No, I don't know her school. But I know her uniform. It's one of the ones with the vest. The vest is yellow and there's a blue bow at the neck. The skirt is yellow and brown plaid. She has short brown hair that kind of sticks out at the sides and brown eyes… Have you seen someone like that recently…?" Kagome asked them. Maybe they had seen her. That would make things so much easier. Even if they just knew the school she's from would be a huge help.

"Uh…Kagome?" Ayumi said, looking beyond Kagome.

"Uh, yes?"

"Is that her?" Kagome turned where Ayumi pointed and she was speechless. Sitting only two tables away from them was Kaname and two other girls. Probably her friends. She felt an overwhelming happiness that she hadn't felt in much too long.

"It is! It's Kaname!" Kagome smiled widely.

"Well, are you going to go say hi to her?" Eri asked, smiling back.

"Yeah! Hold on for a minute, okay guys?"

"Sure! Take your time! You haven't seen her in a while, right?" Yuka waved her off in that general direction.

"Thanks a lot guys. Be right back!" Kagome was almost ecstatic. She walked over to the other table calmly.

* * *

"Kaname…?" She looked up when hearing her name. For a second, Kaname just stared at the girl without a word. Then a huge smile appeared.

"Kagome! Oh my god! What are you doing here?!" She asked excitedly.

"Hey, Kaname, who's this?" Tomo asked, looking at this girl she'd never met before.

"Oh, sorry! Guys, this is Kagome! She's a friend. Kagome, these are my other friends, Tomo-chan and Sana. I can't believe you found me!"

"Hi, Kagome!" Tomo and Sana chorused.

"Hi Tomo-chan. Hi Sana." Kagome smiled at them. "Well, I'm here with my friends!" She pointed at Eri, Ayumi and Yuka who waved from their seats.

"Wow, this is such a huge coincidence! I can't believe that you're here!"

"Well, I came back because we all wanted to find you. Even Inu Yasha wants you back!"

"Really?"

"Uh-huh! I'm gonna go back to my friends now. How about we talk more about this later, okay?"

"Uh, sure! Hey, can I get your number?"

"Yeah! Hold on, let me put it in your phone."

"Right!" Kaname handed Kagome her phone and waited for her to finish inputting the number. When Kagome handed it back, they smiled to each other.

"I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Uh-huh! See you later!" Kaname giggled and hugged her phone. She actually had a connection! She could get back! She hoped that this would be the start of a great thing.

* * *

A/N: Okay! Here we go!!! The chappy is done! WHOO! GO ME!!! XDDD So, yeah. This is for you R-Cleberg!!! 3 So yeah. You get an art commission! If you want to see my art, there's a lot on my DevArt: 


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** You are all allowed to absolutely hate me. And I completely understand. I have been MORE than distracted with so many other things going on in my life. But things have seemed to calm down and since I've seen how many reviews I've gotten since I first started writing this, I feel so much guilt I could just die. Except I won't. Instead, I'll be posting two chapters this weekend and then a chapter every weekend until something else might come up. And if it does, then I will make an Author's Comment on why I can't update that weekend. Sadly, it's been a very long time since I've played my game, and my PS2 is broken beyond repair, so if some of the details are off, please forgive me. R-Cleberg, you are an absolute saint to have put up with me for so long. I apologize mostly to you. You've been reading my story since I first posted it, and you are truly the reason I continue it now. I'm sorry and I hope you enjoy this long-overdue update.

* * *

**Journeying Back**

It was night again and Kaname was back in her room, staring at her phone. She would've called Kagome much sooner after hanging out with her friends, but Kagome had explained that she had a test the next day and that she needed to study. But still! Even if she couldn't talk to Kagome tonight, there was always tomorrow! As long as Kagome was still in the present day, then Kaname could call her without any problem. It made her smile as she giggled to herself. It was so hard to believe that a single phone number could make her so happy.

The one thing that Kaname couldn't help but wondering was why she had come back almost at the same time she left. Did it have something to do with the magic Utsugi used to get her there? That would seem to make the most sense, but there was no real answer. Utsugi was gone, even if she did make her way back, she could never ask her about it. Just last night she thought it didn't really matter since she was so preoccupied with trying to think of a way to see everyone again, but now that that wasn't her biggest concern, she could wonder about this. Maybe there was some significance to her returning the same time she left. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She was too excited about the next day to really think clearly about anything else. She sighed happily and fell back onto the bed. She turned and looked at her clock, as though willing it to be tomorrow already.

* * *

Kagome sat in her room looking over the photocopied sheets Ayumi had given her earlier. It was hard to concentrate when you find someone you thought you might never see again. All those numbers really meant nothing to her at the moment.

"Ugh, what does that even mean?" Kagome exclaimed, frustrated at all the numbers in front of her. What was the point in learning all this stuff when it wouldn't do her any good in the future? She shook her head angrily. That was no way to think when she had a test the next day.

"I'm sorry Math, it's not your fault. My mind's just on other things," she said apologetically as she looked at the limp and slightly crumpled papers in her hands. She carefully read over the papers, praying some of it might sink in by the next morning.

* * *

Once again the loud ringing noise woke Kaname from her sleep. But this time, she just smiled.

"Time to start a new day!" She said happily as she stretched and yawned, rubbing her eyes.

She had slept well and she knew that the day could only get better. After school she would call Kagome and try and see her again. Then they could figure out a plan to get her back to everyone. Even if she couldn't stay forever, since she didn't know how time passes when she goes back in time, if they could find a way to even get her there, then she could go back and forth from the worlds without a problem!

Getting dressed in a rush and quickly pulling a brush through her hair she went downstairs into the kitchen to where a plate of toast was waiting for her.

"I'm frankly very surprised about you, Kaname. Just the other night you were so upset! And it didn't seem like something you could get over so quickly, but here you are, happy as ever!" Kaname's mom commented in disbelief.

"Yeah, I know. It must seem strange to you. It's because I was able to resolve the problem that was bothering me so much!" She said happily before biting into a piece of toast. Her mother stared at her with a disbelieving smile.

"Well, if you say so. Now hurry up, you need to get to school."

"Right!" She nodded, cramming the piece of toast into her mouth.

* * *

Kagome could barely keep her eyes open as she walked to school. Between her excitement over seeing Kaname and her fear of the looming test, she barely slept at all the night before. Seeing the school in front of her, she tried to rub the sleep from her eyes as she walked through the gate.

"Morning, Kagome!"

"Wow, you look like you haven't slept at all!"

"Will you be alright for the test?"

Her friends crowded around her as they spotted her. They looked worried at her half-lidded eyes and purple bags.

"No, I'll be alright. I had a lot on my mind last night, both about the test and about my friend who you saw yesterday." She told them, trying to wave away their worry. She appreciated it, but it wouldn't really help her much.

"If you say so…" Eri said, still looking worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Really! Please don't worry about me! I'm sure I'll be fine for the test and for today." Kagome said with a laugh. They didn't need to worry about her. She might have been tired but she was extremely excited for the day to start, so she could see Kaname sooner.

* * *

Kaname was staring at the clock on the wall of the classroom. It was almost the end of the school day and she was just itching to leave so she could make her phone call.

She had been day dreaming all day long and her friends had questioned her. She had reassured Sana and Tomo-chan that she was just fine, that she was just thinking about someone. Of course, they had taken it the worst way and assumed it was a guy. They had bombarded her with questions all throughout lunch. The strange part was, when they asked some of their questions, an image of Sesshomaru appeared in her mind. She just shook it off as her mind thinking about everything that had happened while she was there and tried not to consider the other possibility.

Finally the final bell rung and Kaname quickly gathered up her books and dashed out of the classroom as quick as she could. It was half from excitement and half to get away from her curious friends. Reaching her homeroom desk. She grabbed her bag and hurried off to the shoe lockers, where she changed her school shoes for her outside shoes. She made sure Tomo-chan and Sana were nowhere to be found before she left the grounds and tried to figure out a place to go.

Checking her wallet, she saw that she still had some money left from the day before, so she decided that WacDnlds wouldn't be a bad idea. Putting her wallet back into her bag, she headed in the direction of the restaurant, wondering when she would be able to call Kagome. She would have loved to call right away, but she wasn't sure what she was doing at the time.

* * *

Kagome stretched happily when the day was finally over. The math test nearly killed her, but in the end she thought she did somewhat okay. She had understood enough questions that she should pass.

"How do you think you did? I hope my notes helped you," Ayumi told her, walking over to Kagome's seat.

"Oh they really did, Ayumi! I don't know how to thank you enough! I think I might even pass this one!" She smiled at her friend.

"I'm glad to hear that! So, Kagome, what are you doing after school today?" she asked her friend.

"Well, I'm expecting to get a call from my friend, so I'll probably be meeting up with her," Kagome said thoughtfully. She knew Kaname would be calling her soon. They had a lot to talk about, especially Kaname's possible return to the Feudal Era.

"Oh, alright! I was still a little worried about you, but you seem to be okay now! I hope you have fun with your other friend," Ayumi told Kagome.

* * *

Kaname picked up her phone and snapped it open. She opened the address book and scrolled down to "Kagome." She let out a happy giggle before pressing the talk button. She put the phone to her ear and heard the ringing.

"_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ri- =click= Hello?_"

"Kagome! Hi! It's Kaname! I hope I got you at a good time!" She could barely conceal the excitement in her voice.

"_Oh! Kaname! Yeah! I was actually waiting for your call. Let's meet up somewhere so we can talk okay?"_

"Well, I'm already at WacDnlds, so how about you meet me here?"

"_Okay! I'll be right there! See you soon!_"

"Bye!" With that, the conversation ended with a click. She put her phone back into her pocket as she sat an the empty table. Looking at the menu on the wall, she tried to distract her mind with trying to figure out what she should order.

* * *

Kagome walked into WacDnlds and looked around for Kaname. She hoped she hadn't been waiting long when she saw the girl sitting at a nearby table. She walked over to the table with a smile. "Hi!"

"Oh! Kagome! Hi! Do you want to order something?" Kaname asked her friend as she started to stand.

"Alright, let's go order. So, Kaname, I know there's one thing that's been on both of our minds for the past two days, right? We need to figure out a way to get you back." Kagome spoke calmly, trying to control the excitement from showing up in her voice.

"Right! Did you come up with any ideas? Because I've been wondering about how you go back and forth through the well. It didn't work when I tried to go back through the well, we said it was because it wasn't the way I had gotten there. But maybe I _can_ go through the well, and then I can back and forth the way you can," Kaname explained her thoughts on the matter. She stepped up to the counter and order her food, paid and then waited for her number to be called. Kagome ordered and stood next to Kaname when she went to wait.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. The way that I go through the well is by using the Jewel shards. Since I have them with me all the time, I'm the only one who can go through the well. But maybe if you're holding a Jewel Shard and you go at the same time as me, you can actually reach the other time!" Kagome informed her of how things worked and how it could work for Kaname as well.

"I never knew that's how it worked! It should work right? Have you ever tried getting anyone from over there to this side?" Kaname asked, wanting to know more about if the well could work for her as well.

"InuYasha has come here before, and that means it's more possible that you can go through too! Of course, we have to try this out as soon as we can. But you also have to make sure you have some sort of excuse for your parents. From what you told me, you returned at the same time you left. It doesn't usually work that way. At least not for me. Each day I spend there, a day passes here too." Kagome looked at Kaname's ticket and she pointed to the woman who was calling out her number. She thanked her and got her food and went back to where she was standing before, waiting for Kagome's number to be called.

"I see. Hmm… We'd have to find a way to make that work, then. It's not like I can just disappear for a few days, even if I do come up with an excuse for my parents. My friends would probably worry too. And I don't want to only visit for a few days and then have to come home again for good. We have to figure something out, don't we?" Kaname asked, concerned about the passage of time. There was no way she'd want to disappear for a long time and worry everyone, but she had to go back for a while, if not somehow be able to go back and forth like Kagome. She wouldn't ask for a jewel shard in order to be free to do it on her own. Kagome got her food and they went to sit at the table.

"Well, there is a vacation coming up soon, isn't there? It's two weeks long, so maybe you can convince your parents to let you 'go camping with me and my family'. That way you can have two whole weeks there and my mom would be able to cover for you if you need her to! I don't mean to say that after that you come home forever, but as a starter, you can come for those two weeks. Maybe we can figure some other stuff out as well. What do you think?" Kagome gave her suggestion and Kaname looked thoughtful about the ides for a minute before smiling widely.

"That's a great idea! If I can spend my vacations there, then I'll be able to see you all more often!" She said with an excited voice at the idea. "My parents will probably want to talk to your mom. If you mom can meet them at least once and if she doesn't mind getting a phone call every once in a while during those vacations, then I think my parents will be okay with it!"

"I'm sure my mom will be okay with that! She know everything about the Feudal Era, and if she finds out I have another friend from this time who'll go with me, she'll be happy about it. I'm sure of it!" Kagome nodded to Kaname's conditions. Things seemed to be going perfectly. Even if its only for a week or two, Kagome was sure that it would be enough to just be able to be together again.

"Great! Then I can see everyone again! Uhm… Kagome?" Kaname asked, her voice suddenly getting uncertain. She couldn't believe she was going to be asking this, but it had been on her mind because of what Tomo-chan and Sana were saying.

"Yeah, what is it?" she asked in a curious voice.

"Do you think… I'll also be able to see… Sesshomaru again, too?" She was completely embarrassed to be asking Kagome about that, and she wasn't even really sure why she was asking about him. Why she was thinking about him, she didn't even know.

"Sesshomaru? Uh.. I don't know. Why, do you want to see him again?" Kagome asked, really curious, her voice showing both her confusion and the beginning of a deeper understanding.

"I… I don't know. Maybe. It's just… my friends were asking me a lot of questions today and recently they've been talking about stuff so…" She could feel the heat rising to her face as she stumbled over her words. She didn't want to straight-out say what was going on in her mind. There were some thoughts in there that she didn't want to focus on, since she was unsure as to where that train might lead.

"What kind of stuff?" Kagome could tell Kaname was getting uncomfortable but her curiosity got the better of her and she silently apologized to Kaname for asking.

"W-well…I found out that some of my friends and classmates have started going out and my friends were asking me a bunch of questions about whether… whether there was a guy I liked…" She was staring down at her hands, which were folded on her lap and blushing, biting her lower lip a little.

"Oh, I get it. You think that you might like Sesshoma-"

"Yes! That's it exactly!" Kaname nearly shouted, cutting off Kagome's words. "It's just…" she began when she had calmed down a bit. "He was nice to me when I was over there and he protected me… And well, no guy had ever done anything like that for me before… Yeah, I know it's weird. Just don't tell anyone, please?" She looked up at Kagome with large eyes.

"Uh, you don't have to worry. I won't tell anyone!" Kagome promised, waving her hands in front of her. "And you're right, it is weird. But I guess if that's how you really feel, I won't say anything against it."

"R-really…?" Kaname's uncertainty was clear in her voice.

"Yeah, really! Anyway, I think I'll go back tonight and tell everyone what we've discussed and then I'll come back until the vacation comes so we can go back together!" Kagome told her, changing the subject.

"Great! I'll talk to my parents tonight then, and tell them I want to spend the next vacation 'camping' with you! Maybe tomorrow we can get our parents to meet or something." Things really were falling into place and Kaname couldn't be happier. Soon she'd be back with the people she felt really understood her and there was always the chance she could see _him again._

_

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**A/N: **There you go! Chapter 3 is complete!!! I'll try and post another chapter up this weekend. As you can see, I've definitively made my statement on what pairing I shall be pursuing in this story. It's all because of SonAmy and ShadMaria fan and her AMVs on Youtube. It made me more inspired to put the pairing in as soon as possible. I was always going to make it that pairing, but now I've stated it outright. Well, I really hope you enjoy this chapter. Check on my profile for information on my way of apologizing to everyone for being a horrible person and not updating FOR OVER A YEAR!


	4. Chapter 4

**A****/N:**Hello all! Told you I'd be updating again! I'm feeling more inspired to write this! Also, because I'm writing this I have found a way to play my game again! My grandmother has a PS2 and I have the game, and though I can't find my memory card, I'll borrow the one I gave my friend, during the weekends, since I go to my grandmother's house every weekend! That means I'll be able to get inspiration AND references for things. So… YAY FOR ME!!

Enjoy 33

* * *

Journeying Back

"Mom, Dad, I have something I want to ask you."

"What is it Kaname?" Her mother looked at her from across the table.

"Well, I was wondering if it was okay for me to go camping with my friend Kagome's family during the next vacation," Kaname informed them of the already decided on alibi.

"Who's going to be there?" Her father asked her directly. If his daughter was going to be gone for a couple of weeks, he wanted to know who she would be with.

"It's going to be Kagome, her mom, her grandpa and her little brother. If you want to confirm anything, Kagome gave me her house number so you could call her mom and talk to her." Kaname hoped her parents wouldn't be suspicious of anything and would allow her this leave.

"Well, I don't see why not. Is there a number we could call to get in contact with you if we need to?" Her mother asked, wanting to ensure some sort of connection.

"Uhm, I don't think there's any service where we're going. But if there's a pay phone anywhere, I'll try to call, okay?" That would end up being the biggest problem. There really was no way to get in contact with anyone from this world once she got over there. But maybe Kagome's mom could find some way to cover for her like Kagome said she would.

"Hmm… I'm not so sure then…" Her father mused. He wanted to make sure his daughter would be safe wherever she was going.

"Oh, come on Dad! Please!" she practically begged. He couldn't say no now!

"Let her go, honey. I'm sure she'll be fine. There will be adults there and I'm sure that if anything happens, then they'll know what to do and how to contact us. Right, Kaname?" Her mother smiled at her. She was happy to see her daughter so enthusiastic about something. She figured it probably had something to do with why she was so upset the other night.

"… When can we talk to your friend's mother so we can discuss the arrangements?" Her father caved in. He could see how much she wanted to go, so he wasn't going to be the bad guy and stop her.

"Oh! Thanks Dad! Thanks Mom!" Kaname cried, hugging each of them. "Well, I have the number right here, so you can call her now. Kagome said that her mom would be willing to meet with you as well, if you want." She was grinning widely at that point. Things really were working out well.

* * *

"I don't see why not. I'd be happy to talk to your friend's parents," Kagome's mom conceded with a smile. "I think its great that you have a friend from this time that you can share this with!"

"Thanks Mama!" Kagome hugged her mother, so happy that things were working out. She had already gone back and told everyone the plan to get Kaname to come back. They had all been happy and enthusiastic about it. Kagome was wondering though, whether she should test out whether Kaname could really go through or not. It would be better to know now if she couldn't, but once she gets there it would be hard for Kaname to just immediately leave with seeing everyone, and she knew that. She could always just call her the next day and ask what she wanted to do.

"You're going to take your friend to the Feudal Era?" Her grandpa asked her. Kagome turned to him with a smile.

"Yeah! I know it must seem strange, but I _met _her in the Feudal Era!"

"Really? Wow! I didn't know other people could get there! I wasn't able to!" her little brother Souta commented.

"Well, she didn't go through the well. In fact, InuYasha found her in the forest, all alone. She was brought back to that time by a magical power that her ancestor used. She traveled with us to try and find a way home, and in the end, she helped us defeat Naraku!" Kagome explained their relationship to her family.

"I see, so she's become an important part of your group," her grandfather commented.

"Wow! That's so cool! I want to go back in time and learn magic and fight demons like you guys!" Souta said, getting more excited at her story.

"You defeated Naraku? Does that mean you'll be at home more often?" her mother asked. "I miss you when you're away from so long and I'm sure your school friends miss you a lot too."

"I wish that's what it meant, but no. Just because our biggest enemy's gone doesn't mean my job will be easier. We still have to find the rest of the jewel shards. And there's a lot, even though we've been trying to collect them all for a long time now. I didn't realize a single jewel could shatter so much. Not to mention, we're not sure how to put it all together." Kagome shook her head with a sigh as she thought about how much work still lay ahead of them. It's not as though she would abandon that world after they can finished collecting the jewel shards, but she would be happy to be able to stay in the present for longer than a few days at a time.

"Oh, alright," her mother sounded a little sad. "Well, as long as you keep safe while you're there, I have no problems. And since the biggest threat is gone, you'll be safer now than ever before."

Kagome could tell that her mother was trying to cover her worry for her daughter. She hugged her mother again, but this time it was more than a quick thank-you hug, but a longer I-love-you hug. "Thanks for worrying about me, Mama. But I promise I'll be okay! There are so many of us, we'll never get badly hurt!"

"I know, Kagome. I trust you."

* * *

"Hey, Kaname! Where did you go yesterday? We wanted to ask you more questions!" Sana asked when Kaname sat down in her seat next to her.

"Yeah! You were being so vague and dodgy about it all, we wanted to find out the truth!" Tomo-chan said, leaning over her desk from behind Kaname.

"Yesterday I went to see my friend from the other day, Kagome. We had some things to talk about, that's why I disappeared yesterday."

"Really? We were _sure_ you were trying to get out of answering our questions!" Sana commented with a sly smile.

"So if that's _not_ the reason, then you shouldn't mind answering our questions _now,_ right?" Tomo-chan asked, resting her head on her arms, staring directly at Kaname.

"U-uh… I guess not? But class is going to start soon, so please don't ask too many questions…" Kaname said, her face flushing slightly. She already knew who would pop into her mind as the answer to any of the questions.

"So, let's get this straight, right now. You've met a guy you like, right?"

"Well… It's not exactly like that…"

"Then, what is it like?"

"Well, he's…" Kaname had no idea what she was saying or what she would say next. "He's just someone who helped me when I needed help. And I helped him too."

"How'd he help you?"

"How'd you help him?" The two questions were nearly simultaneous.

"Uh… well… he helped me out when I was in trouble. He saved me a few times… And I helped him out by protecting and taking care of his… little sister." It wasn't exactly a lie, even though it was far from telling the whole truth. And though she could see Sesshomaru and Rin's relationship more like that between a father and daughter, it would be too awkward to say she protected and took care of his daughter.

"Well, that's sweet! What else…"

"What's he like?"

"Oh, right! Is he nice?"

"He's… Well I don't know really if he's nice or not. He kind of hides his emotions from everyone. So he might be doing something to be nice, but he does it in such a way that he seems mean. And as for what he's like…. He's strong and he really cares about his little sister. I can tell he'd do anything to protect her." Kaname didn't even realize she really thought all of those things until she said them.

"Aw, that seems like a really great relationship they have!" Tomo-chan said with a smile.

"Yeah! Now just imagine if you can get him to care as much about you as his little sister! He'd do anything to protect _you_ then!" Sana laughed, teasing Kaname.

"No, I doubt I could ever do that…" She shook her head at Sana's words. No matter how she might have felt about Sesshomaru, there was no way he could ever care about her as much as he did about Rin. At that moment, the teacher came in and quieted the class, preventing any more questions, which made Kaname feel relieved. She let out a sigh and sat forward, waiting for class to start.

* * *

The final bell rang and before Kaname could go anywhere, her friends cornered her.

"We're going to finish asking our questions, okay?" Sana told her, rather than asked.

"There's a lot more we want to know!" Tomo-chan agreed.

"Alright, fine. Let's go somewhere to talk, then…" Kaname sighed, giving into defeat.

"There's a park nearby, we can go there to talk," Sana suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" Tomo-chan agreed with a nod. Kaname was grabbed by the arms by her friends and half-dragged out of the classroom and the school.

"You guys can let go now! I promise to not run away, okay?" Kaname told them, pulling her arms free after being dragged for a few minutes.

"Okay, the park's right over there." Sana pointed across the street to an empty park with a few swings and an bench.

"I wonder why its so empty at this time of day. Don't little kids usually swarm these kinds of places?" Tomo-chan asked, looking critically at the empty park as they crossed the street.

"Well that's because there's a rumor that this park is haunted. One of the seniors last year made it up to scare away the little kids. Even though its not true, the little kids are too afraid to even come near it," Sana told them as they entered the park. It was a pleasant enough park and Kaname couldn't figure out how the little kids believed the stories when the park felt so happy. She shrugged off the thought and took a seat on one of the swings and her friends sat on either side of her.

"Okay, so ask your questions," Kaname gave them permission as she slowly swung back and forth a few inches.

"Hmm, let's see… How did you two meet?"

"How-? Uh…. He was looking for someone who had done something to him. I had lost my way and I went with him, since some of my other friends were looking for the same person, so I would be able to find them in the end. He kind of protected me when we were on our way over to where that person was. But when I found my friends, he sort of just left me with them without saying much. But he still looked after me until I found my friends and he left once he knew I was with people I knew. So I guess you could say he was being nice to me then…" Kaname mused as she remembered the first time she had met him.

"That's… actually pretty nice of him. Most guys wouldn't even bother!" Sana told her, stretching her legs.

"Well, he kind of needed to find the way, so he needed me…" Kaname gave in more detail.

"But still, he didn't need to just leave you with your friends! It sounds like he left you with them before he got to where he was going, so he still needed you as a guide, but he let you be with your friends," Tomo-chan said with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, that's true! He's pretty considerate!" Sana agreed.

"I guess…"

"By the way, when did you meet him?" Tomo-chan asked her.

"When…?" Well, technically, seeing as how she spent quite a while in the Feudal Era, about a month or so, it would be about two and a half weeks. But since all that had happened in a matter of seconds during the present it would be two days ago? However, if her friends started asking more details and she said it had only happened a few days ago, they'd wonder about how so much was able to happen in that time. "About two and a half weeks ago."*

"Really? It was that short ago?!"

"Why didn't you tell us sooner then? I mean, if it was over two weeks ago and I was teasing you a few days ago about not having a guy, you should have spoken up instead of just blushing!"

"Th-that's because I was too embarrassed to say anything…" Kaname looked down at her lap as she said that.

" Not to mention, you said that they were "only in junior high" and dating, meaning you think that's too early, but you have your own guy!"

"I- I still believe that junior high is early for dating! And I'm not being a hypocrite since I don't think I'll be dating this guy! There are too many problems with that. For instance, I don't think he even likes me…"

"How do you know? Did you ask him?"

"Of course not! I wasn't even sure about my own feelings until yesterday! All because you guys were asking me so many questions!" Kaname shook her head furiously.

"You were unsure for so long?" Tomo-chan asked. "But you're sure now, right?"

"Well, yes. I know I _do_ like him now. But I could never ask him. I'd be too afraid to ask him something like that! Even though I like him, he still scares me a little. And I don't even know when will be the next time I'll see him."

"Why? Does he not live around here?" Sana asked her, watching her expression, which seemed to be more sad.

"…No. He doesn't really live near here. The only chance I have to see him is during our vacations, but I don't even know if I'll be able to see him then…"

"Oh…. So he'll be in the area during vacations?"

"No, but I'm going to be with my other friends who know him, so there's a higher chance I'll run into him…" Kaname knew her face was flushed at the thought of seeing Sesshomaru again.

"Well, at least there's a vacation coming up! I hope you get to see him again!" Tomo-chan said with a smile.

"Yeah! I hope the best for you, Kaname!" Sana encouraged her.

"Thanks guys."

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry it took longer than I thought to post this! As you can see, this chapter is way more about Kaname's feelings as well as some more stuff with Kagome's relationship with her family. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going right now, so feel free to give suggestions. Now, about my plans to play the game again: Well, first off, everything was going according to plan, but my grandmother's PS2 was as busted as my own. BUT! And this is the most awesome but ever, SHE BOUGHT ME A NEW ONE!!!! So now I have a PS2 so I can play my game a lot more often, like whenever I have time!! That was one reason it took so long for me to post! Another reason was… I GOT A TABLET!!! So now I'm all into drawing and working with it! So I got a little ADD XD But! I've prioritized muuuuch better! I really want to keep up-to-date with this story…. Even though I'm not sure what's going to happen, I still want to keep working on it. So yeah… Please review with any suggestions about what I should do!!! But mind you, I will post next weekend with or without suggestions, though I really hope I get some, otherwise I'm going have to come up with a bunch of stuff that may not even make any sense.

* Since it's been so long since I've played the game, I'm not really sure what the time frame would be, or how soon you meet up with Sesshomaru, so I hope this works well enough.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**Here we go! Here's the next chapter of Journeying Back! =333 I was able to get a lot of suggestions from SonAmy and ShadMaria Fan that I can use! So I'm going to be using them all, although some are altered slightly. Once again I am slightly distracted, though. I was just able to get a memory card for the Gamecube I'm borrowing from a friend, so I've been playing Tales of Symphonia, which is an absolutely awesome game!!! You should totally play if you can!! If you like Final Fantasy, specifically FFX, you'll love it! Also, my mom put Sailor Moon on the TV for my little brother to watch, so I'm a little ADD as of right now XD And the dubbing is so bad XDDDD It makes me laugh… Enough about my ADD XD Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new chapter! =33

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_

**Journeying Back**

"Hey, Kaname. I have a question to ask you," Kagome said as they sat with their friends all together in WacDnlds.

"Yeah, sure! What is it Kagome?" Kaname turned towards Kagome. She was a little surprised how well their friends got along.

"I've been thinking. If you're going to go back during the vacation, we're going to have to see if my theory works, don't you think?" Kagome was finally voicing the question that had been bothering her for a while. The vacation was only two days away and the next day the weekend would be begin.

"Yeah, definitely! What did you have in mind?"

"Well, what would you say to having Sango come over tonight and having a sleepover or something? I mean, if everyone will see you for the first time again in a few days, you'll be crushed!" She laughed at the image_. _

"_That _wouldn't be good.!" Kaname laughed with her. "And yeah! I think that's a great idea! You should definitely bring Sango over here!"

"Great! I'll call you later, when Sango's already over and then see if you can come over, either tonight or tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes. I'll talk to my parents about it!" Kaname smiled widely and nodded enthusiastically. It would be great to see Sango again! Even though she did miss everyone, she missed Sango the most. That was why she had written her name on the doll the day she came back.

* * *

"So, that's the plan. What do you all think?" Kagome wrapped up her explanation of what she and Kaname had spoken about earlier.

"Why can't I go?!" Shippo pouted unhappily. He missed Kaname as much as anyone else, so he didn't know why he couldn't go with them to see her again.

"Don't be stupid, Shippo. We all want to go see her, but we have to wait until she gets here. Besides, I'm sure she doesn't want an annoyance like you bothering her sooner than necessary," InuYasha scoffed at him.

At that, Shippo's eyes began to well up. "Kagome! InuYasha's being mean!"

"InuYasha! Don't be mean to Shippo!" She looked very angry. Shippo had taken it as hard as everyone else when Kaname had left, so it was natural that he would want to see her as soon as possible. Besides, he was still just a child.

"A-alright! Geez! Sorry Shippo." InuYasha grumbled the apology. He knew he was being a little too harsh, but Shippo's whining just got on his nerves.

"Anyway… Sango, what do you think?"

"Ah, yes! I wouldn't mind going to your world to test the well! If it's to make sure Kaname can get back, I don't mind at all!" She nodded with a smile. Seeing Kaname again would be a great thing. Not to mention being able to see the future would be a priceless experience.

"Good! Then it's settled! I'm sorry Shippo, but I want to try with someone who's the most similar to Kaname. Even though Sango's a little older than us, she's around the same height, so it should be a good way to test the well." Kagome wanted to make sure Shippo would understand the reasons for the decision.

"…Okay. But she's gonna be coming back soon, right?" He looked up hopefully at Kagome. She laughed.

"Yes, Shippo. She's going to be coming back in two days, so you don't have to wait much longer, okay?"

"Okay!" He smiled happily.

"Alright, we're going to go to the well now. Come on Sango, let's go!" Kagome stood up.

"Right. Let me just say goodbye to Kohaku. He's helping Kaede out with something." Sango hurried over to the hut where Kohaku was currently handing a few herbs to Kaede. "Kohaku!"

"Sis!" He smiled when she approached. "What's going on? I heard that you were all talking about something important while I was gone."

"Yeah. Of course you remember Kaname. Well, we found a way to maybe bring her back!" Sango told her brother.

"Really? That's great! I want to see her again to say thanks… and apologize."

"Yes, I know. But in order to make sure she can come back, I'm going to be gone for a few days, alright?"

"Alright! I'll be okay here without you. We don't really have anything to worry about now, so it's okay!"

"Thanks, Kohaku." She hugged him "I'll be seeing you in a few days."

"Good luck on your trip," Kaede told her with a gentle smile.

"Thank you!" She waved before running off towards the well where Kagome was waiting.

* * *

"Is it okay, then?"

"Hmm… Well, not tonight. We want to spend tonight with you. You can go sleep over tomorrow night, okay?" Kaname's mother told her.

"Okay! Thanks, Mom!" She kissed her mom on the cheek. "I'm going to go make a phone call, okay?"

"Alright, don't take too long. We're going to watch a movie tonight." Kaname nodded before walking off to her bedroom.

* * *

"Ready?"

"Ready…" Sango nodded as she clutched the jewel shard to her chest. They grasped each other's hand before making the jump into the well. Kagome saw the familiar light she always saw when crossing through time. She looked to her side to make sure Sango was still there and not at the bottom of the well. To her delight, Sango was still there. He eyes was held tightly shut. When she didn't feel herself land when she should have, she opened one eye cautiously and her eyes widened at the light around her.

"Wooow..." The sound escaped her mouth as she looked first at the light at her feet and surrounding her and then at Kagome next to her smiling. "This is amazing! I never knew it was like this to travel through time!"

"Yeah, it was a real shock to me too, when I first did it. Oh, I think we're going to be landing soon. Get ready for it!" A few moments after Kagome said this a dirt floor came up towards them and their feet touched down onto the ground. Sango stumbled a bit, but caught herself on the wall.

"Wow… I never knew this well was so deep." Sango was looking up towards the roof of the building it was in.

"Come on, there's a ladder her for this." She started climbing up the rope ladder to get out of the well. Sango nodded once and started climbing as well.

* * *

Kaname picked up her cell phone and scrolled though the address book until she got to Kagome's number. She dialed and let the phone ring.

"_Ring ring. Ring ring. Ring ri- =click= Hello?"_

"Huh? Wh-who is this? Is… is that you Sango?!" She was able to recognize the voice immediately.

"_Uh, Yeah. Kaname? Is that you? This device is so strange… I can't see you but I can hear you're voice!"_

Kaname laughed. "Yeah. It is pretty strange! Can you tell Kagome that my mom said I could stay over tomorrow and that she wants you two to visit over here tomorrow morning so she can see who I'm going to be with?"

"_Alright, I'll tell her._" For a moment the other line went quiet before another voice came on. "_Kaname? So your mom wants us to visit tomorrow, right? Okay! You said there was a bus that goes straight to your house, right? We'll be there around ten in the morning, okay?"_

"Yeah, alright! I'll tell my mom. Can't wait to see you guys! I'll see you tomorrow then!"

"_Right. Bye! =click=_" Kaname smiled and closed the phone before going downstairs to let her mom know the plans.

* * *

Back in the Feudal Era, a little girl finally found her destination. It was the village where some people she knew lived. And these people might know something about the girl who helped her out before. Walking through the village, she finally found them. She walked out into the clearing where they were all sitting.

"Huh? What are you doing here, Rin? Is Sesshomaru around here somewhere?!" The second he saw Rin, InuYasha became cautious.

"No! I came here all by myself!" She smiled. "Uhm… I was wondering… Do you know if Kaname is coming back? I really miss her…." She pouted and looked down sadly.

"Yes! Actually, she's coming back in a few days," Miroku told her with a smile. Rin looked up at him and smiled widely.

"Really?! That's great! I'm so happy! Thanks for telling me!" And with that she ran off to go find Sesshomaru and Jaken again. She hadn't gotten far out of the village when she saw them "Lord Sesshomaru!!"

"Rin. Where did you go so suddenly?" It made him a little uneasy when the girl disappeared like that. There had been too many times when she had been kidnapped.

"Sorry to worry you, Lord Sesshomaru!" She said with a smile. "But I wanted to find out if Kaname would be coming back! And they said she's going to be coming back in a few days!!" She told him in an extra hyper voice.

"Why would Lord Sesshomaru care if or when a mere human girl would be coming back?" Jaken berated her.

"Rin, don't run away for something so unimportant." Even though he said this, he couldn't help but feel something… strange at the mention of Kaname's return. He couldn't describe what exactly he was feeling, so he just ignored it. It wasn't really important. "Come, Rin. We're going." He turned and began to walk away.

"Ah! Right, Lord Sesshomaru!" She ran after him, with Jaken not far behind.

* * *

Kaname woke up without the help of the alarm that morning. It was eight thirty in the morning. An hour and a half until her friends were going to be there. She quickly got up and changed her clothes, a skirt that went down to her knees and a long-sleeve shirt. She brushed her hair and went downstairs to eat before she would finish packing her things for her trip.

"Good Morning Kaname. You look nice today, sweetie," Her mother commented as she served breakfast.

"Thanks, Mom!" She smiled. She looked around for her father but didn't see him. "Mom, where's Dad?"

"Oh, he went to go buy some things. He'll be busy while you're friends are here, but he'll make sure to say hi." Kaname nodded as she ate her food.

* * *

Kagome was letting Sango pick something out from her clothes. She was looking a little overwhelmed by all the modern clothing.

"All I've ever seen you wear is your uniform. I didn't know there were so many kinds of clothing in this time!" Sango looked through all the dresses hanging in the closet.

"Do you want me to decide for you, then?" Kagome offered, already dressed in a pink summer dress with a yellow sweater over it.

"Well… Alright. You know these clothes better than I do. Maybe you can find something for me…" She agreed, sitting in the spot on the bed Kagome just vacated to go through her clothing.

"I think you'd actually look nice in pants, Sango…" Kagome pulled out a black pair of pants from the drawer and soon after a magenta shirt with little yellow designs on it. "I think this would suit you. The colors are all the same as what you usually wear, so it won't feel so strange for you."

"Uh, thank you…" She blinked as she looked down at the clothes. The colors certainly did match her demon slayer's outfit.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom, so you can change while I'm gone," Kagome told her, walking out the door.

Sango nodded before looking back at the clothes and putting them on, wondering what she would look like in those strange clothes.

* * *

Kaname was ready and packed. Her bag was next to the front door, next to the shoes. She kept wandering around her house, waiting for Kagome and Sango to arrive. All the anticipation was nearly killing her.

"Kaname, pacing like that won't make them come any faster! Just sit down and relax. They'll be here soon enough," Her mother said, putting her hand on Kaname's should her guiding her towards the couch and pushing down slightly so she would sit. Kaname sighed.

"You're right… I'm just a little anxious. I haven't seen Sango in a while and I really thought I wouldn't see her again…." She shook her head with another sigh.

"I still don't know why you thought that. Even if she lives a little far, like you say, there's always ways to get in contact with her and the others you told me about," Kaname's mother said as she walked back into the kitchen to prepare tea to serve when the guests arrived. Kaname continued to sit and think about how she was finally going to be going back to everyone. It might be hard to live this double life, but it would be better than never seeing any of them again. The doorbell rung, jarring her out of her thoughts. She jumped up.

"I'll get it!" She ran over to the door and opened it to see the smiling faces of Kagome and Sango. "Kagome! Sango!!"

"Kaname!" Sango hugged her friend when she saw her. It was such a relief to see her again. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too! And you look so nice in those clothes!" Kaname laughed, still hugging her friend. "Come on, let's go inside." Sango let her go with a thanks and an apology, then she and Kagome switched their shoes for house slippers. They all walked inside and sat on Kaname's couch and her mother brought tea for them all.

"So you two are the famous Kagome and Sango I've heard about, huh?" Her mother smiled at the girls and sat across from them in an arm chair.

"Uh, she really talks about us?" Sango asked, feeling a little self-conscious.

"Of course! Now tell me about yourselves, girls," Kaname's mother asked them as she got comfortable.

"Let's see, where to start…"

* * *

**A/N:** Where, there ya go! Chapter 5! WHOO! YAY! It's going well =33 It brings me many joys XD So yeah… I have a few ideas thanks to SANSMF… her username's too long and I already know I'm probably going to refer to her in every chapter now, so I might as well abbreviate her name. Anyway, I would gladly accept any other suggestions or ideas for what to do with this story. Cuz I only have vague blotches of ideas stretching out into the future, but not much for the right now XD I have some ideas for the next chapter or so, so I'd greatly appreciate anything you can suggest for beyond that or even stuff that I can inject before Kaname get's back to the past. It is all greatly appreciated! =3


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hello everyone! Back with a new chapter! ^^ Ugh, I've been feeling sorta depressed recently for a few reasons, so this past week was pretty bad… BUT! I'm feeling way better now! And so… sorry if the chapter's a little… off or whatever… So yeah… Tuesday was awesome!! I stayed home with my mom and we watched Barack Obama's Inauguration together, and it was great! My mom cried a bit, and his speech and the prayers were beautiful! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next chapter! 3

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**Journeying Back**

It was around four o clock in the afternoon when Kaname's mother had run out of questions to ask. They had spent the past few hours getting to know each other, and Kagome even helped make lunch. Kaname learned a few new things about Sango and Kagome and they learned a lot about her, including some stories from her childhood she horribly regretted. The three girls were getting ready to return to Kagome's house to start their sleepover.

"Are you girls sure you don't want me to drive you? I really don't mind…" Kaname's mother asked them as they put their shoes on and Kaname grabbed her bag.

"Yeah, mom. Don't worry about it. There are a lot of things we want to talk about, so the longer bus ride is better," Kaname told her mother.

"Well… if you're sure. Be careful and have fun," Kaname's mother said before hugging her daughter. Kaname hugged her back with a smile.

"Don't worry mom. I'll make sure to take care of myself. Besides, there's going to be other people there too, okay?"

"Yes… Alright. Have fun, all of you!" She waved them off as Kagome and Sango said their goodbyes and left Kaname's house.

* * *

As they stood at the bus stop, Kaname turned to Sango. "So, how is everyone?"

"Oh, well, they're doing well. And Kohaku is looking forward to seeing you again, too!"

"Oh! Kohaku's alright now? I'm so glad to hear that! " Kaname was sincerely happy. After all the things Sango and Kohaku went through, it was great news that things went back to normal. The bus arrived at that moment and the three girls stepped onto the bus and paid, Kagome paying for Sango.

"Since we're not going back until tomorrow, what should we do tonight?" Kagome asked as they took their seats. It was off-peak so there were few people on the bus at that time.

"Well, how about if we watch a movie?" Kaname suggested. Even though she thought of Kagome as one of her closest friends, she realized she didn't know what kind of movies she liked.

"Movie? What's a movie?" Sango asked curiously. She may have heard Kagome and Kaname refer to them before, but she never quite understood what they were talking about.

"Oh, well. It's sort of like a play, except they have it in such a way that you can watch it as often as you want, where ever you want, without the actors being there." Kagome nodded, thinking her explanation was good enough.

"Okay, I think I get it. So movies can be about all kinds of things?" Sango wanted to know as much as she could before she was surprised by watching it with them.

"Yeah. It can be a romance story, an adventure story, a comedy, a horror, all sorts of things, really!" Kaname smiled as she listed the genres of film, at least the basic ones.

"Oh, so where do you watch these 'movies', since you said you can watch it everywhere?" She aimed this next question at Kagome.

"Well, there are these things called televisions, where you can see moving images and sounds without having to be where the action is. It's sort of like a box with a glass front, and that's where you see the images from." Kagome finally said after figuring out the best way to describe a TV.

"I… think I get it. I think it would be good to watch a movie then. Who knows, this may be my only chance to watch one!" Sango agreed with the earlier suggestion eagerly.

"So, what should we watch, Kagome? Do you have any suggestions?" Kaname asked her once everything was settled.

"Uh, well. Let's see what I have first, then we can decide from that. I don't think I have the most up-to-date collection, since I've been too busy to get any of the recent movies." Kaname nodded at what Kagome said about the movies.

"Alright, then I guess we'll wait until we get there to decide what movie to watch."

"Sure. I don't see why not, though I don't really have much of a say anyway."

* * *

They walked up the long stairs from the street up to where the shrine and Kagome's house were located and Kaname looked around at the trees and the shrine in which she assumed the well was in.

"Is that where the well is, Kagome?" She voiced her question, pointing towards the shrine.

"Ah, yes. That's right. It's right in there. That's where we're going to be going tomorrow, and then you'll be able to see everyone again!" Kagome confirmed in an extremely happy tone. The next morning would be the day when Kaname would finally be able to go back and be reunited with everyone she had left behind so abruptly.

"Oh, I can't wait! Then I can see InuYasha and Miroku and Shippo and all the others again!" Kaname exclaimed happily and clasped her hands together. She noticed that when she said 'all the others', the first face to pop into her mind was Sesshomaru's. She shook her head slightly to try and remove the image before continuing onto Kagome's house.

"Mama! We're here!" Kagome called out when they had entered the front of the house, where they changed their shoes for slippers before walking inside.

"Oh, let me meet your friend!" Kagome's mother commented before walking from the kitchen so she could see them. "Oh, hello. You must be Kaname. I've heard a lot about you! I'm so glad that my daughter has someone to share her secret with."

"Uh, yes! Well, I'm glad that I'm able to share her secret too!" Kaname answered with a smile and nod.

"Would you girls like anything to drink or some snacks?"

"No, thanks, Mama. Kaname's mother made sure we ate and drank enough," Kagome told her as the three girls headed towards the stairwell.

"Let me know if you need anything, alright?"

"Will do!"

* * *

The three girls sat in Kagome's room; Sango on the bed, Kagome on the chair and Kaname on the floor, leaning against the bed. They had just finished watching a movie about the Feudal Era, just to see how accurate it was. It was pretty off in a lot of things, they decided. Sango was at first, despite being told what a movie was, very surprised and shocked at seeing the people in the little box; but as the movie drove on, she became more accustomed to it.

Since the movie was over, they were all quiet, trying to think of what to say, though the silence was far from awkward. There seemed to be so much to say but nothing could come to mind to break the silence.

"Oh!" Sango said, breaking the silence. "Kaname, there's something important I have to tell you…" She sat up from lying on the bed, her feet on the ground as she looked down towards Kaname's place on the floor.

"Really? What is it Sango?" She sat up straighter and turned her body to face Sango better.

"That's right! She never knew about that, did she?" Kagome said with excitement Apparently whatever Sango was going to tell her was something big that was a long time in coming.

"No, we never told her. Kaname, a while back, well… Miroku proposed to me, saying that we would get married after Naraku was destroyed and well…"

"Oh my god! Really Sango?! So you and Miroku are going to get married now?!" Kaname was really surprised and shocked but she felt extremely happy for her friend.

"Yeah… We don't know when we'll actually get married yet, but… it's going to happen. And you have to be there, okay?"

"Of course I'll be there! I wouldn't miss it for anything!" Kaname changed to sit with her legs folded under her. "Whenever you know, please tell me!"

Sango smiled warmly and laughed at Kaname's enthusiasm. "Of course!" Sighing happily, Sango returned to lying on the bed.

"Kaname, don't you have something you want to let Sango know, too?" Kagome asked her, a slyness in her tone.

"Huh…? Oh! You mean… that…" Kaname's voice trailed off when she said that.

"What is it Kaname? What do you have to tell me?" Sango asked, pushing herself up onto her elbows to see Kaname better.

"W-well, uhm…" Kaname was nervous to talk about it again. Sango just shared her good news with her, so there should be no reason why Kaname's couldn't share hers. "You see… when I was over there… Uhm…" She couldn't really think of the proper wording for what she wanted to say.

"When Kaname was back in the Feudal Era, she found someone who she really likes." Kagome provided, seeing Kaname was having trouble.

"Who?" Sango asked in surprise. "As far as I know, we didn't really meet many people who could catch your interest! We weren't really in any one place long enough."

"Well… it's… Sesshomaru…" Kaname said, quietly and in a shy voice.

"What?! Sesshomaru?" Sango cried out in surprise, bolting upright.

"Er… yeah. Sesshomaru…" Kaname could feel the blush on her face from just Sango's reaction.

"How did that happen? I mean, I know you were with him for a while, but what made you like him?" Sango asked, legitimately curious.

"Well… my friends were asking me questions right after I got back… I was depressed about leaving the Feudal Era and they though it was because of a guy. When they were asking me questions, the only person who came to mind was Sesshomaru. When I asked myself why… I realized…." She turned redder when she said the last part.

"I… I see…" Sango was silent for a while. "Are you going to seek him out when you return?"

"I..I don't know. Maybe not. At least, not yet. I want to spend this first time back with all of you guys. Maybe the next time I go, I can look for him. But I'm not sure yet…"

"Alright…" Sango nodded. She still wasn't completely sure what to make of all this. "Well…uhm, I guess that either way… I'm on your side. If you think that it's best for you, then you should…I'll support you no matter what you do. I'm not sure the same could be said about the guys, though."

"R-really? Oh, thank you Sango!" Kaname smiled widely at her friend. "You have no idea how much that means to me!"

"W-well! You're my friend! If there's someone you like and they're not completely bad, then I can only wish you the best."

"Yeah, she's right! As your friends, we'll always be on your side and try to help you, including with things like this!" Kagome agreed with a smile.

"Thanks guys! Really…"

* * *

Night had passed quickly, half because of their conversation and half because, when they finally got to sleep, time seemed to whiz by. It was around 10 in the morning and the girls were already awake, getting ready to journey back to the Feudal Era.

"So, we're just going to go straight there?" Kaname asked. She was really nervous about being able to get through the well.

"Yeah. We can eat over there. Have you gotten better at cooking, Kaname?" Kagome asked with a laugh.

"Heh heh, yeah, a little bit!" Kaname smiled, scratching the back of her head.

"Then we can all cook something when we get there," Sango said with a nod.

The three girls walked down the stairs and Kagome bid her mother goodbye. Once outside, Kagome lead them to the well and handed Kaname the jewel shard. "The trip takes a little time, just so you know…" Kagome told them.

"Oh, that's okay…" Kaname walked over to the well and peered to the bottom. It looked slightly different from the one in the Feudal Era, but not much. Turning to Kagome and Sango, walking back towards them. "So! What are we waiting for?" She took a step back, not looking where she was going, and quite conveniently, Kagome's fat cat, Buyo, was lying there and Kaname began to fall backwards… into the well.

"Kaname!" Kagome grabbed her hand, but the momentum caused Kagome to start to fall in after her.

"Watch out!" Sango then proceeded to grab Kagome, but once again, it wasn't quite enough and all three girls fell down the well.

The usual light surrounded them. And Kaname somehow was able to right herself from her nearly up-side-down position. "Wow… This is so strange…" She looked around her. Kagome and Sango were standing next to her, each with a jewel shard, Kagome's around her neck and Sango's in her other hand.

When the light faded, they landed on the ground and Kaname knew happily that it was familiar. She'd been in that exact spot a little after she first arrived, trying to get home. She looked up to see the familiar peering faces of her friends, who all broke out into smiles when they saw her. "I'm back…"

**

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**A/N: Alright… I fail as a person… horribly! I've been sooooo ADD with two things! One is a Japanese Horror Anime called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I recommend it if you like blood, gore, insanity, and death. 3 And the other is the Namco videogame Tales of The Abyss…3 YOU ARE ALLOWED TO HATE ME!! But yeah,… It's updated! Don't worry! I won't just stop for a year again! Maybe a little more than a month, but NOT a year! I hope you enjoyed it. And Just so you know, reviews make me more motivated to post on schedule! =3**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Hey everyone! I'm back! I just had my spring break and its about to end! Which makes me sad… But yeah…. Usually Spring Break would mean more updates than usual, but for me it just means I'll actually update! That's only because my week has been filled with a lot of stuff and yet another obsession has grabbed hold of my brain… Avatar: The Last Airbender and 2 of the pairings, Taang (Toph X Aang) and Zutara (Zuko X Katara)…. So… Hate me if you wish! But! I am updating!!!

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After Shippo finally stopped trying to hug her into submission and she herself hugged the others, they were all sitting in Kaede's hut. Kaede and Kohaku were both out picking herbs, so they would be back sooner or later.

"How have you all been? I missed you guys so much…" Kaname said with a wide smile and tears in her eyes.

"H-hey! Don't cry!" InuYasha called out, jumping back a little bit. He'd never been good with emotion like that.

"He's right! You have no reason to cry. You're back with us now!" Miroku said with a gentle smile.

"I know… I'm not_ really_ crying… They're just tears of joy, I guess!" she told them, laughing a little at their reactions. She rubbed the tears from her eyes. "See? All better… So how _have_ you all been?"

"Uh, we've been okay, I guess…" InuYasha said, scratching the back if his head, not really sure what to say.

"We've missed you so much!" Shippo cried out, hugging her again. Kaname laughed.

"Yes, Shippo. I know!" She hugged the little fox boy back. "Oh! Right! Miroku, I heard that you and Sango are engaged! I'm so happy for you two!"

"Oh? She told you? Yes, we're engaged. You'll be coming to the wedding won't you?"

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it for anything!" Kaname said with a smile. "You guys are my friends, of course I'd want to be there!"

"Good! We'll let you know when it is as soon as we find out." Miroku said with a nod, also smiling.

"So, did anything interesting happen while I was gone?" Kaname asked them.

"Actually, right after Kagome and Sango left, Rin came by, asking about you…" Shippo told her, his arms crossed.

"R-really? Rin? Did she seem like she was doing okay?"

"Do you really care?" InuYasha asked her, seeming a little put off by that. After all Rin was Sesshomaru's subordinate.

"Of course I do! I had to take care of her for a while and we sort of got close in that time."

"She seemed to be doing fine. She was very excited when we told her that you were coming back and then she ran off," Miroku informed her.

"I see…." Kaname said with a nod. Does that mean that she told Sesshomaru, then? Or that she's still nearby? That _he's _still nearby? She knew that Sesshomaru would probably never let Rin go very far on her own. So was he still close? Was there a possibility of seeing him?

"Kaname, why are you _blushing_…?" InuYasha asked her, his tone a bit angry and a lot confused.

"Wh-what?! I'm blushing? No I'm not!" She cried out, shaking her head to try and clear her mind of those thoughts and covering her cheeks with her hands. She could feel the heat from her face against her hands and that made her blush more.

Kagome giggled and looked at Sango, who was smiling a bit. They both knew exactly why Kaname was blushing. If Rin was around then of course that would make anyone assume Sesshomaru was nearby as well. They both thought her reaction to her thoughts and to being caught was cute.

"Kaname, is something wrong? You're _obviously_ blushing…" Shippo asked her, staring at her suspiciously.

"Of course nothing's wrong! I'm fine! Don't worry about me!" Kaname nearly squeaked. She knew she was blushing and she just couldn't shake the thought or the excitement she had at the thought of maybe seeing Sesshomaru again in the next two weeks.

"You're acting awfully strange… Are you sure you're alright?" Miroku asked her, with a look of worry.

"Yes! I'm fine, really… Just ignore that, please…" Kaname said with a sigh. There was no way to really explain away her blush, so she tried her best to get the thought out of her mind. After a moment her blush did die away.

"If you say so…" Shippo said, still looking at her suspiciously. She laughed nervously, hoping for something to come along and change the subject.

"Oh! Kaname! You're here!" Something somewhere loved her, apparently. Kaname looked over at where the voice was coming from and saw Kohaku.

"Kohaku!" She went over to him and hugged him. "How have you been? I was so glad to hear that you were back to normal!"

"I've been good. I'm just glad I got to be with my sister again… she's the only family I have left, after all… Uhm, could you please let go…?" He asked, a little uncomfortable.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!" Kaname said with a laugh and let go. "Well, I'm glad you and your sister get to live together again!"

"Yes… Uhm, Kaname? I was waiting for you to get back so I could say something. I want to thank you for everything that you did… and apologize for what I had to do…" He said, looking down to the side.

"Don't worry about it. I know that you didn't really have control at that time. And you're very welcome. I'm glad I was able to help in any way!" Kaname said with a happy nod. Kaname looked over to see Kaede walking in a moment later. "Kaede!" She hugged the old woman who had been so helpful and kind when she first arrived.

"Kaname, you're back! I'm glad to see you're doing okay." Kaede hugged her back.

"Yes! I'm doing fine! I'm so glad I get to be back for two weeks!"

"Two weeks? That's it!?" InuYasha said unhappily. "Kagome, you didn't say your 'vacation' was only two weeks long!"

"Well, it's never any longer than that! You wouldn't know since I'm always here, with or without vacation!" Kagome shot back with a look. Kaname laughed, a bit nervously.

"It's not like I'm going to leave and never come back after that! I'll be back for my next vacation! I promise!" she said, shaking her hands in front of her, before hearing her stomach growl. She immediately turned red.

"Ha ha! I guess you're hungry. I'll make something for you all," Kaede said good-naturedly, with a laugh.

"… Thanks…"

* * *

After they had all eaten a large breakfast, mainly made by Kaede with help from the girls, it was true, Kaname _had_ gotten better at cooking, they were discussing what to do next.

"Well, we don't have any leads for jewel shards right now. We could always just stay here and relax for a while!" Kagome suggested with a smile.

"If we don't have any leads, we should go find some!" InuYasha retorted.

"We could always just do that! Kaname just got back! We should take it easy and have fun!" Shippo said in an angry voice.

"W-well… I don't mind looking for leads… Then it really _will_ be like nothing changed! Sure, it can be a little scary at times, but it's always fun!" Kaname put her two cents in.

"If Kaname's willing to do it, then so am I," Sango said with a shrug.

"I'm with Sango. If Kaname wants to go then why shouldn't we?" Miroku said with a nod.

"Hmph. Guess I win. Let's get going," InuYasha said with a smug smile.

"We don't have to leave right away! Besides, we have to get more supplies, anyway. We haven't left the village in a while, so we're low." Kagome wagged a finger at him.

"Fine, fine. Go get your _supplies_." He scoffed, turning his head to the side.

"Don't be so immature InuYasha," Kagome sighed.

* * *

"Lord Sesshomaru, do you think she's back yet? They said in a few days and its been a few days!" Rin asked excitedly.

"Don't ask Lord Sesshomaru such stupid questions! Why would he care if some human was back or not?!" Jaken berated the little girl, who ended up pouting.

"You care, don't you, Lord Sesshomaru?" She asked, still pouting.

Sesshomaru looked at Rin. He wanted to say no, but something stopped him. Maybe it was the look on Rin's face. He had a soft spot for her and he didn't want her to look sad. Or maybe it was that fact that he felt that he _did_ care, if only a little, and that was strange to him. He decided the best way to answer would be no answer, so he said nothing.

"… That's good enough for me! Can I go see if she's back yet?" Rin asked him with a smile.

"Fine, but don't be too long."

"Yay!" Rin ran off towards the village, hoping to find Kaname there.

'It's strange that Lord Sesshomaru never went far from the village. It could just be because Rin would want to go back to the village to check for that human. But for some reason I think there's more to it that just that.' Jaken thought to himself.

* * *

"Are you ready yet?" InuYasha asked impatiently. He felt as though he has been waiting hours, even though it had really only been thirty minutes.

"Almost! Be patient InuYasha! We can go soon enough!" Kagome told him in an angry tone.

"Yeah, whatever…" he huffed, annoyed at all the, what he considered, stalling.

Kaname laughed. "Don't worry InuYasha! We'll be on our way soon enough!" she said, trying to calm him a little.

"Kaname!" Upon hearing her name, Kaname was a little confused. She had already seen everyone in the village, so who would be looking for her? Then she recognized the voice and she turned to see the happy little girl running over to her. "Kaname! You're back!"

"Rin!" She knelt and opened her arms for the little girl to hug her.

"I missed you so much! And I'm not the only one! He doesn't want to say it but I'm sure Lord Sesshomaru missed you too!" Rin said happily. Kaname immediately turned red at the little girl's words.

"I-I'm sure that's not true…. I missed you too Rin! How have you been?" Kaname shook her head slightly to try and dissipate the blush.

"I've been good! If you want to see Lord Sesshomaru, he's right outside he village waiting for me!" Rin said happily. Of course, this made Kaname's feeble attempts to get rid of her blush fail miserably.

"What?! Sesshomaru's here?!" InuYasha said in alarm.

"Yes! But he's not here to fight! He just wants to see Kaname again!"

"R-Rin!" Kaname was still blushing. Kagome and Sango looked at each other warily. He probably was there just to wait for Rin, but with everything the little girl was saying, maybe that really wasn't the only reason. Since Rin was always with him, she would probably know his true intentions for anything, but this… was something else.

"Why would he want to see _Kaname_?" InuYasha said in a nasty tone. He knew that they had spent some time together, but what did she do that he would want to see her?!

"I said it's because he missed her!" Rin said, puffing her cheeks out. "For having such big ears you really don't listen very well, do you?"

"What'd you say?!" InuYasha growled at her and Rin hid behind Kaname.

"InuYasha! Stop scaring her! She's just a little girl! She's probably just making things up…" Kaname told him, giving him a look.

"But… I'm not making things up…" She said with a pout in a low voice.

"…Just don't let him know that…" Kaname told her in a whisper. She wasn't sure whether she should believe what Rin was saying. She knew she _wanted _to, but that didn't mean it was true. She shook her head slightly.

"Alright, fine… Then go back to him so he can leave!" InuYasha growled. He felt uneasy having his brother so close.

"But I don't wanna leave yet!" Rin said giving him a look, still hiding behind Kaname.

"InuYasha give her a break. I'm sure it'll be fine. You worry too much!" Kagome said, waving her hand slightly.

"Yeah, InuYasha! Besides, I think Kohaku said he wanted to see Rin, too." Sango told him.

"Argh, fine! If you're all gonna gang up on me, then she can stay! But not for too long!"

"Yay! Okay!" Rin said happily, hugging Kaname. Kaname laughed.

"Well, if Kohaku wants to se you, let's go say hi, okay?" Kaname said, taking Rin's hand and leading her back to the hut.

"I hope you guys know what you're doing…" InuYasha huffed.

* * *

**A/N: **WHOO! Okay, this chapter is done! OwO AND THAT MEANS THIS IS OFFICIALLY MY LONGEST STORY BOTH WORD-WISE AND CHAPTER WISE!!! =DDD It's all thanks to you guys, the readers! Once again, I offer art to any and all who review this! =3 Let me know in your review or in a PM! Once I finish them, I'll put all the links up on my profile page! Alright! I'll update this again soon-ish! I really want to work on some of my other stories, so this one might be put on the back burner while I work on the others. But I promise that the next chapter will be done within the next month or two! Thanks for being patient!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**: Okay! Okay! I know I said two months and it's been 3! I'M SORRY! But I've been ADD and graduating from High School and getting ready for College and to go to Florida and watching horror movies and stuff! I know that that last one totally does not fly as an excuse… And I'm sorry about that! So, I'm updating now! I want to update once a week again for this story, since its summer vacation and I think that's just appropriate. Hopefully I'll have enough time to do that, since I also wanna update my other stories… So please bear with me, such a horrible person! -bows-

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"Kohaku? Are you in here…?" Kaname asked as she peered into the hut. Rin was looking into the hut from behind her legs.

"Oh, Kaname. Kohaku just stepped out. I think he went to fetch some water. You could probably find him by the stream," Kaede informed them when she looked up from what she was doing. "Why, hello there. Are you looking for Kohaku as well…?" She asked Rin when she noticed the little girl looking around.

"Uhm… Yes, I am…" Rin nodded. Kaname smiled. "Thanks Kaede, we'll go check for him there!" Kaede nodded goodbye to the two as they ran off towards the stream.

"So, Rin… I noticed that before, Kohaku seemed to look kinda happy when you were mentioned…" Kaname smiled down at the little girl who turned the slightest bit pink.

"Really…? That's nice of him…" Rin half mumbled, making Kaname giggle slightly.

"Oh, I see how it is! Rin, do you _like_ Kohaku…?" Kaname asked curiously with the smallest sly smile.

"Wh-what? No… Why would I?" She seemed flustered by the 'accusation.'

"I dunno, just something about the way you reacted just there… It seems kinda suspicious…" Kaname joked in a sing-song voice, though Rin turned pinker. "Oh! There he is now! Kohaku!" Kaname waved over at the boy who was kneeling by the stream, collecting water.

"Hello, Kaname. Why did you come all the way out here?" He asked, standing up from the river bank. It took him a moment to notice the girl with her. Upon seeing Rin his eyes widened and he turned his head. "Oh… Hello, Rin…"

"H-hi Kohaku! How have you been? I haven't seen you in quite a while!" Rin greeted him with a smile, trying to hide the bashfulness she was showing just a moment before.

"I… I've been good. It _has_ been a while, huh? How about you? How are you?" Kohaku answered, trying to match her cheeriness.

"I'm fine! I was visiting to see if Kaname had gotten back yet, and since I was here… I decided to say hi!" Rin said, shifting a little bit.

"You… wanted to say hi to me?" Kohaku asked, turning his face again.

"Uh… yeah! Why not…?" Rin responded while looking at her feet. Kaname was smiling at how cute the two seemed together.

"Well! Since you seem to be getting along so well, I think I'll leave you guys to yourselves!" Kaname excused herself. She couldn't hold in her giggle when she saw how red the two got from her comment. She ignored their feeble protests and wandered back over to where the others were.

"Hey, Kaname. Where's that little girl?" InuYasha asked with an angry tone. He still seemed pretty angry that he was talked into allowing the girl to stay that much longer.

"Oh, she's just talking with Kohaku. She said she wanted to say hello and I didn't want to get in their way so I left…" Kaname informed him with a nod.

"Get in the way? Get in the way of what?!" InuYasha asked angrily.

"Oh, InuYasha, you just don't get it do you?! Why else would Rin want to say hello to him?" Kagome berated him with a sigh.

"How should I know?! I don't _try_ to understand girls, anyway!" He huffed unhappily.

"Well, I knew about Kohaku, but I wasn't really sure about Rin in all this," Sango admitted with a shrug.

"I think it's cute, though! Their expressions when they saw each other was so adorable!" Kaname giggled. "At first they couldn't even look at each other at all!"

"Ah, I get it. Young love," Miroku said in understanding with a nod.

"Love?! You mean Kohaku and Rin…" InuYasha exclaimed, with a very surprised look on his face.

"InuYasha, you're so slow about this kind of stuff! YES! Kohaku and Rin like each other!" Kagome sighed exasperated by his cluelessness.

"I wonder… since it's the first time they've been alone since Kohaku has been completely free, maybe they'll say something…" Sango mused, fond of the thought of having a little sister.

"Oh, that'd be great! Then Rin would be a part of our little family!" Kagome smiled, clapping her hands together.

"Our little family? What little family?!" InuYasha frowned. He didn't particularly like the idea of having Rin in their group. Because then that would mean that as default, her protector would as well, and he would be damned if Sesshomaru joined their group in any way.

"Well, we're really are like a family! I consider you all my friends but also kinda of like siblings!" Kaname agreed with a smile. She liked being a part of this family. Of course, she had not come to the same conclusion as InuYasha, or else she would have blushed.

"I'm glad you can consider us in this way," Miroku smiled.

"Some of you are going to be closer than others, though!" Kaname laughed, referring to Miroku and Sango's engagement.

"You're right, but more than just the two of, right?" Sango smiled, looking pointed at Kagome and InuYasha. Kagome immediately turned red and became flustered. InuYasha was also flustered, but in a more angry way, though he was still red.

"What are you talking about?!' Kagome nearly screeched, her voice high pitched and panicked.

"What?! You're not saying me and Kagome…?! Ha! Of course not!" InuYasha scoffed it off. Though he only said that to stop the conversation, Kagome took it the entirely wrong way.

"What do you mean 'of course not'!?" Kagome glared at him.

"Wh-what? It's true isn't it?! It's not like there's anything like that!"

"Ugh! You're so… so… UGH! SIT BOY!" Kagome yelled at him, aggravated. Less than a second later, the crash of InuYasha being pulled down by the force of the rosary could be felt for quite a radius. Kaname winced.

"Kagome, You do realize he didn't mean that, right…?" Sango whispered to her as the angered girl sat far away from the one who caused her mood.

"Sango's right! He does care about you! He's just… shy! And angry… so he expresses his shyness with those kinds of outbursts!" Kaname knelt next to her.

"….. He could be a little nicer about it…" Kagome grumbled.

On the other side, with the guys, Shippo was poking InuYasha cautiously to make sure he was still alive. "Hello~ You still alive…?" the little fox demon called down near InuYasha's head, sitting on his back.

"Shippo… Get off me!" InuYasha growled agitatedly. He sat up abruptly, throwing the little demon off.

"Hey! Watch it!" Shippo yelled at him.

"Oh, just shut up!" InuYasha huffed. He didn't look at him.

"InuYasha, you have to be more careful with how you say things. You really hurt Kagome with what you said. You don't really feel that way, we all know that. But you can't say things so thoughtlessly. You know Kagome's insecure about those things." Miroku instructed him in his error.

"Yeah, I know that…" InuYasha mumbled.

"You're mean, InuYasha! You have to think about Kagome's feelings! You can't just say stupid stuff like that!" Shippo frowned at him.

"I know!" InuYasha snapped at him. He had little patience for the fox. Shippo pouted at him.

"In any event, you have to apologize to Kagome, alright? Tell her you didn't mean it." Miroku informed him.

"…Right…" InuYasha sighed and stood up. He still felt wary about approaching Kagome but it seemed like the girls had done a good job at calming her down. He cautiously walked over to her. "Kagome…?"

"…What is it?" Kagome's response was sharp. She might have calmed down but she was still angry, and he knew it.

"I… I wanted to apologize… I didn't mean what I said, okay? There I said it…"

"… Alright. Apology accepted…" Kagome smiled slightly. "But I'm still a little angry at you!"

"What?! What else am I supposed to say!?" InuYasha asked in confusion.

"Nothing, nothing. I don't expect anything more from you… Just give me some time, okay?"

"….Alright, whatever. I don't really get it but whatever you say…"

"Oh, I wonder how those two are doing…" Kaname mused aloud.

"Yeah… I hope everything's going okay," Sango agreed.

"I'm sure it's fine," Kagome smiled.

As if on cue, Kohaku and Rin walked over to them from the stream.

"What's going on over here? It was really loud…" Rin asked when they got close enough. She was looking a little worried, which was also obvious from how she was partially hiding behind Kohaku.

"What happened…?" Kohaku himself asked, looking around for any sign of what caused the noise.

"Oh, it's nothing! You two don't have to worry!" Kagome said with a small laugh, waving their concern.

"Are you sure…?" Rin asked cautiously, also surveying the area.

"Yeah, don't worry about it…" InuYasha told them with his arms crossed, not directly looking at them.

"If you say so…" Kohaku sighed a bit in relief that there was nothing dangerous going on.

"Hey, you. Since you already said hi and everything you can just leave now, right? So, go already!" InuYasha directed at Rin, who stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hmph! I don't have to go unless I want to!" Rin stood her ground, not letting InuYasha chase her away. She went and stood behind Kaname. "Besides, Kaname wants me to stay, right?" She looked up at Kaname with wide eyes.

Kaname let out a small nervous laugh at being made the focus of attention as well as the decision maker. "W-well… if she wants to stay, then we don't have a right to stop her…." she half-mumbled.

"See! It's fine!" Rin grinned happily, sticking her tongue out once more for good measure. "But if I stay here much longer, Lord Sesshomaru might start worrying… Maybe I should get him to come over here!"

"NO! That's **_exactly_** why I didn't want you to stay in the first place!" InuYasha immediately objected to the very idea.

Rin pouted at InuYasha. She didn't see why it would be a problem. She turned to look at Kaname to see what she had to say and saw she was looking at the sky, pretending she had nothing to do with it, though her blushing face was indication enough of her opinion. "Aw, why not?"

"Because! He's an enemy! What other reason?!" InuYasha snapped at the child. She glared at him.

"You're mean! He's your brother, isn't he? Why can't you try to get along?!" Rin snapped back.

"Because! There's a lot of reasons!" InuYasha nearly growled at her.

She pouted and went quiet, trying to figure out what to do. She didn't want to leave yet, especially because of Kaname and Kohaku, and she also wanted Sesshomaru to see Kaname again. She wanted to see how he would react, since she knew that Sesshomaru had some opinion of Kaname, a positive one. Then she got the perfect solution.

"Fine! I won't bring him here… But I will stay longer! I'm gonna go tell him I'm stay here for a while! And I'm bringing Kaname with me!" Rin announced her decision and grabbed onto Kaname's hand.

"E-eh?!" Kaname let out a near-squeak of surprise at the girl's announcement.

"What?! Why do you need to take her!?!" InuYasha was also surprised by the girl.

"I told you before! Lord Sesshomaru wants to see her! So, since he can't come here, I'm going to take her over there!" Rin said with a nod of conviction.

Kagome and Sango were looking at each other with varying levels of surprise. They knew it was both a perfect and stressing situation for Kaname. She had wanted to see him, but this soon and in this way might be a little much for her. They looked at Kaname to see her blushing and looking flustered.

"U-uhm! D-do you really need to take me…?! I… I mean… Are you sure he wants to see me?" Kaname asked, stumbling over her words. It was certainly… a strange situation to find herself in.

"Of course! I know he wants to see you even if he doesn't want to say it! When I asked him if he cared that you were back and he didn't say no! That's a good sign!" Rin told her with a wide smile.

"U-uhm… I-If you say so…." Kaname nodded slowly.

"What?! Why are you agreeing to go?!" InuYasha cried angrily. It was quite clear that he didn't trust his brother and was worried about the friend they had just gotten back.

"W-well… I have my reasons!" Kaname told him, not wanting to say at all what she was really feeling.

"InuYasha, just let her go. I'm sure she'll be fine," Miroku said, patting InuYasha on the shoulder. He knew what Kaname's reasons were. It seemed that only InuYasha didn't really understand. Even Shippo and Kohaku seemed to know what was going on.

"Stop being such a worry wart, InuYasha!" Shippo berated him. It was obvious that Kaname wanted to go, but of course InuYasha was too dense to understand that. Kohaku nodded in agreement with Shippo. He still felt like a bit of an outsider, so he didn't feel comfortable saying something himself, but he would still agree with the others.

"See? Everyone knows that she'll be okay! C'mon Kaname! Let's go see Lord Sesshomaru now!" Rin said happily, starting to head towards the village's exit.

"R-right…" Kaname nodded, allowing herself to be dragged along by the girl, shooting the others a look of thanks as she went.

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**A/N**: OMG I FAIL AT LIFE!!! I know, I know! It's been about 4 months now! I'm a horrible person!! FORGIVE ME! I got even more distracted! I ended up going to Florida for a week, a very awesome week at that… But that's not an excuse! I was also Fullmetal Alchemist high, Naruto high, and then I had a lot of college stuff to worry about. I'm now happily registered for all my classes! So, please forgive me! And I absolutely failed at updating the other stories… I tried but I fail at trying!! It's because of all the unstructured time, I became ADD and couldn't just focus on working on my stories… But now that school's starting up again, I promise I'll be way more active! And as always, my apology is still open… aka you can ask for drawings if you so choose! I am totally open to that!!! And GEEZ! I'M SORRY! I didn't mean to turn this chapter into just talking and talking and talking! I'm outta practice... This chapter was mostly trasitional, so please bear with me. Next chapter: She meets with Sesshomaru again!


	9. Chapter 9

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**A/N:** I can honestly say I had no idea that my story would go this long! It's all thanks to all my wonderful readers and reviewers! I am truly grateful that you've put up with my lazy ADD spazz. Especially R-Cleberg. You've been with me from the beginning and you're the main reason I've been able to keep up with it. You made my LIFE with your last review!!!! OwO SO! Because of this, I'm going to be updating again, way sooner than I would have! Also, I've been playing the game again, just because I missed it. And now I'm super inspired to keep writing! I hope you guys like this next chapter!

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"I'm so happy that you get to see Lord Sesshomaru again!" Rin said in a cheery voice as she continued to lead the way, holding onto Kaname's hand.

"Y-yeah! So am I…" Kaname nodded, blushing. She was more than just happy. But she had no idea how to act around him. There was no way she could just act normally around him; She was feeling her feelings for him too strongly to hide them all that well. She shook her head to try and clear her mind. She would just act as normal as she could, and that was all there was to it.

"He's just a little bit farther from here. I can't wait to see his face when he sees you again!" Rin smiled happily.

'He has expressions….?' Kaname couldn't help thinking to herself. She's only ever seen him looking annoyed or emotionless. She tried to imagine what look he could possibly have on his face other than those two, but it was hard. Rin looked at her, expecting an answer. "R-right… yeah…."

* * *

As soon as Kaname and Rin had gotten out of sight, InuYasha decided to follow them. He didn't trust his brother at all, and he certainly didn't trust him with his friend.

"InuYasha! Don't! Just stay here! I'm sure everything will be fine!" Kagome tried to convince him but failed.

"How can you all be so fine with this! It's Sesshomaru we're talking about! Why do you trust him with Kaname so much?!" He demanded from them.

"InuYasha, it's more… complicated than just that…" Sango told him with a sigh, trying to find the right words.

"What do you mean 'complicated'?!" InuYasha growled,. He didn't get what the girls were trying to say, nor did he want to. It was probably some stupid girl thing that he would never understand anyway.

"You're really clueless, aren't you?" Shippo asked in a flat tone, staring at him.

"What am I clueless about?!" He was really starting to get annoyed by all this talk. "Just come out an say it then!"

"Kaname likes Sesshomaru!" Kagome, Sango and Shippo said in unison, though it was more like yelling at him.

"Wh-what!? What do you mean she likes him!?" That… certainly wasn't what he expected to hear. Though that did make a lot of things clear.

"She has feelings for him… She's had them for a while, actually. When she was back at the present, her school friends were asking her questions about why she seemed sad. That was before we had really met up again," Kagome started explaining. "One of the questions was about whether there was a guy involved that she liked. From that point on, she started to like him…"

"That doesn't even make any sense! How is that a reason for her to like him!?" InuYasha growled. He knew he was being somewhat over protective, but he couldn't help it. She was an important friend and he didn't want to see her get hurt in any way by his brother.

"Like I said before, InuYasha. It's … complicated…" Sango sighed, shaking her head.

"I don't care how complicated it is! I'm still gonna go see what's going on!" InuYasha said with determination.

"Well, since we can't persuade you otherwise, I think we should all go," Miroku piped up, after avoiding being involved with any of the rest of the conversation.

"…Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing what's going on either…" Sango admitted with a shrug.

"Fine, let's all go. But none of us are going to do anything, alright?" Kagome agreed, aiming the last words directly at InuYasha, a little anger in her tone.

"Alright, alright!" InuYasha huffed in agreement to her condition.

* * *

"Uh, Rin… How much farther is it…?" Kaname asked. She was looking around and she wasn't too familiar with where they were. Not to mention it was farther away from the village that she would have thought.

"Not much farther! Lord Sesshomaru didn't want to be too close to the village," Rin told her with a nod. "We should be there in less than a minute!"

Kaname turned somewhat red. In less than a minute, she'd be seeing Sesshomaru again. Someone who she wasn't even sure she'd ever get to see again. Rin giggled when she saw Kaname turn red.

"You don't have to be so embarrassed, Big Sister!" Rin giggled again. "Oh! We're almost there! Just passed those trees!" Rin pointed at some trees that seemed to be the last barrier to a clearing.

"I… I see…" Kaname nodded. She was more than just embarrassed at that point. She knew she had told herself to act normal, but there was no way she could! Besides, how would Sesshomaru react at seeing her to begin with? He'd probably not make any change in terms of his expression, despite what Rin was saying.

"Kaname, stay here, okay?" Rin told her with a smile, letting go of her hand right before they passed those last trees. "Lord Sesshomaru! I'm back from the village! I came to ask you if I could stay a little longer!"

"Rin! You've been gone for too long already! What was keeping you?!" Jaken asked, annoyed. He didn't like staying so close to the village to begin with.

"I was saying hi to everyone! And I want to go back so I can spend more time with them and Big Sister! Is that alright, Lord Sesshomaru…?" Rin quickly answered Jaken and turned to Sesshomaru expectantly.

"… Do as you wish." He answered after a moment's pause. He knew that Rin would be happy around other people, and despite what he might say, he did care about Rin.

"I-is it really alright that we stay here, Lord Sesshomaru?!" Jaken asked with surprise.

"Yes. It's fine." He answered, not looking in his direction.

"Oh! Right! Lord Sesshomaru! I have a surprise for you!" Rin said happily, acting as though she had forgotten. She ran back to the trees where Kaname was waiting, watching what was going on silently. Rin grabbed her hand and dragged Kaname out into the clearing. "I brought Kaname along to say hi!"

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"InuYasha, are you sure you can find where they went…?" Kagome asked. Despite her earlier protests, she really was curious to how the reunion would go.

"Of course I can! We're pretty close as it is… We have to be careful that we're not caught, though," He informed her as he continued to follow Kaname's familiar scent.

"Then we should probably stay a safe distance away…" Miroku commented, looking on ahead, trying to see if they were in viewing range.

"But we have to be close enough to hear and see what's going on," Sango piped up. She wanted to cheer on Kaname, but in order to do that, she would first have to be a witness to what happened.

"Wow, girls sure are nosy…" InuYasha said in a flat, almost annoyed tone.

"What are you talking about, InuYasha? It was your idea to begin with!" Shippo told him with a bit of a pout.

"Shut up! We're getting close to where they stopped. Stay quiet and don't move too much…" He quieted them down and slowly got closer to where Kaname had been led.

* * *

It took a moment before Kaname realized what happened. She blinked when she saw Sesshomaru and turned red. She hadn't expected Rin to pull her out like that, though she wasn't really sure when she _had_ expected Rin to do. She looked to see Sesshomaru's expression, if there was one. 'What…? He actually looks… somewhat surprised!' Kaname couldn't help but notice the expression, even though it was slight.

"Rin! Why would you bring this human girl here?!" Jaken reprimanded her, shooting a none-too-friendly glance at Kaname.

"What do you mean, why? I knew that Lord Sesshomaru wanted to see her! And since he doesn't want to go to the village, the only thing I could do was bring her here!" Rin retorted with a little frown.

"As I said before! Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't want to waste his time on a human, Rin!"

" It's not a waste of time!" Rin continued to protest. That whole time, Kaname was shifting uncomfortably. It was only a little to do with the argument and more to do with the fact that Sesshomaru was still staring at her. It was unnerving, especially since she couldn't read his expression at all. She didn't know if he was happy or upset to see her.

"Jaken… Be quiet." Sesshomaru said to silence the annoying demon.

"B-but, Lord Sesshomaru-!" It only took a glance for Jaken to know that he had to shut up. He shivered a bit and looked to the ground. He really didn't understand what all the fuss was about that girl.

"See! I knew Lord Sesshomaru would be glad to see you!" Rin said happily, taking what Sesshomaru had said in a good way and smiled at Kaname.

"R-right…" Kaname muttered quietly. She really had no idea what to say at that point and looked away to the ground. Rin elbowed her slightly.

"Say something!" the girl whispered to her. Kaname nodded slightly.

"Uhm… H-hello again, Sesshomaru…" Once again she was at a loss. 'What should I say…? I'm sure hello isn't enough, but I don't know what else I _could_ say!'

"You missed her when she was gone, didn't you, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked, pushing the issue.

"…." Once again, Sesshomaru stayed silent. Normally he's say no, but as before, he felt that that wasn't entirely true. And for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to say so to Kaname's face. It wasn't something he was used to, being considerate of others in terms of feelings or anything. And since he had no answer to give, he gave none.

"W-well, Rin… Since you already asked about staying at the village longer, I think we should probably get going… We don't want to be a bother…" Kaname said, motioning to Rin that they should leave.

"Oh… okay! We're off now, Lord Sesshomaru! If you need us, you know where we'll be!" Rin waved to him happily and started off. Kaname lingered behind for a moment, giving one more glance back before quickly following after Rin.

"Wait for me! Don't go too far ahead!"

Sesshomaru sighed quietly. Something was definitely strange. He usually didn't care about humans, but for some reason this one mattered… As much as he hated to admit it, it was true. This human girl mattered, almost as much as Rin. He hadn't really thought much of it when Rin first mentioned the girl's return. But this time, probably since he had seen her directly, there was a very different effect. He didn't really understand want that meant so he pushed it aside, trying not to dwell on the matter too long.

* * *

By the time Rin and Kaname had returned to the village, everyone else had as well. They had made sure that when Kaname first mentioned leaving, they all hurried back, so that they wouldn't be caught.

"Sango, what do you think about what happened…?" Kagome asked her quietly.

"I can't be too sure… We don't really know Sesshomaru that well, so we can't possibly understand what anything really means when dealing with him…" Sango replied with a sigh.

"Hey guys, we're back!" Kaname called out when she and Rin walked back to the others.

"Oh! Hey! How'd it go?" Kagome asked, trying not to be suspicious.

"…. I'm not so sure…" Kaname sighed, sitting next to her. Rin had run off to go play with Shippo and Kohaku, leaving only the older ones behind to talk.

"What do you mean by that…?" Miroku posed the question. It might be helpful to everyone's understanding of the situation of they knew what Kaname herself thought about everything.

"Well…" She looked around warily, especially at InuYasha.

"What?! Don't look at me like that!" InuYasha huffed. "Look, they explained things to me… though I still don't really get it… Besides, I don't really wanna be here if you're gonna be talkin' about all that stuff…" He turned to walk away.

"Hey! InuYasha! That's rude!" Shippo yelled after him.

"Actually, Shippo, this seems like it might be a girl thing. We should leave too and let the three of them talk." Miroku told the little fox demon.

"…Okay…" Shippo agreed reluctantly and left with Miroku.

Kaname watched the three of them walk off. Maybe it was for the better if she didn't have to worry about what the guys might say. Kaname looked back down at her folded hands and said nothing.

"So…? How was it?" Sango pressed her when Kaname wasn't saying anything.

"Oh… well… uhm… His… expression… It was different than I've seen it before. But I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing…" Kaname admitted to them.

"Well… what kind of expression was it? Maybe you can get something from that?" Kagome suggested.

"It was… kinda surprised. But surprise isn't always good… so I don't really know what to think…" Kaname explained with a shake of her head.

"Well, it's not like he chased you away or anything, right…? I mean… The way you came back doesn't seem like it."

"Well, you're right. But should I really take that as a good sign…?"

"Well, maybe you should be a little cautious about it, but it certainly doesn't seem like a bad sign. And you came back with Rin, so he must trust you a lot," Sango told her, patting Kaname's shoulder.

"Yeah, that's true… Okay… I'll take that as a good sign, then! Of course, that doesn't mean anything about if I say anything to him or if I just stay quiet…" She sighed again, slightly comforted.

"Just be true to your feelings," Sango smiled.

"Right! There's nothing you can do if you deny how you feel. You know I've had to deal with that," Kagome agreed.

"Be true to my feelings…." Kaname repeated thoughtfully. "Maybe you guys are right…." Of course that didn't mean she'd go back there and tell Sesshomaru how she felt right then and there. But it was definitely a start. "Thanks guys," She smiled.

"Of course!"

"That's what friends are for!"

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**A/N:** WHOO! YAY! CHAPTER!! OwO This took me 3 days to write… constantly playing the game the entire time XD A while back, I did a stupid thing of erasing all my files for the game, so I've had to restart from nothing. But today I finished my first new play-through and I unlocked the Sesshomaru ending and that makes me really happy! I'm gonna be playing it again to get that ending and that's really gonna get me going to work on this more XD Only big problem I seem to be having right now is not making Sesshomaru's feelings develop too fast… I really wanna go forward with that, but I have to be careful or I might start becoming OOC and I really don't wanna do that D= So… If Anyone has any suggestions of where I got from here or what I can do to stretch out the romance from beginning too quickly, I'd be more than happy to hear them! So! Please review!! The love inspires me to write! XD


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:** Alright, this is long overdue, by like a YEAR, and I feel pretty bad about taking so long to get back to this! I don't really have an excuse other than the fact that I'm ADD as all hell (Axis Powers Hetalia has EATEN my brain like woah) and I apologise to all the people who read this! Each and every review is greatly appreciated and makes me feel like writing this story is worth the ADD-conquering it requires! As always, suggestions are greatly appreciated since I've also been running a little low on ideas for where to go with this without making things seemed rushed. So I'm going to be focusing on a side pairing for this chapter. Please, every and all ideas are greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone for putting up with me!

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Rin and Kohaku had left the older people to their discussion and had ended up by the stream where Kohaku had gone to collect water. He realized that he had forgotten to actually bring the water back, being too busy talking to Rin and then being distracted by all the commotion.

"Hey, uhm… Do you mind if I go and give Kaede the water? I probably should have given it to her a while ago…" Kohaku said a little shyly, giving Rin a sideways glance.

"Oh, sure! It's your responsibility, right?" She smiled back at him. After the initial embarrassment of seeing him for the first time in quite a while, she was feeling rather comfortable around him. She could still tell that he was a little embarrassed and shy around her and she couldn't help but think that he was cute like that. Of course, that thought in itself was enough to embarrass her and make her turn a bright red. So much for getting over her embarrassment.

Seeing her face suddenly turn red without any real reason, Kohaku frowned slightly. "Hey, are you alright, Rin?"

"Oh, yes! I'm just fine! Don't worry about me!" Rin reassured him, giving him a wide smile, even though her blush wasn't exactly gone. Her smile made him turn his head away, red covering his own cheeks.

"Alright… if you're sure…" They reached the bank and he bent down to pick up the bucket he has used to collect the water. Having the bucket securely in hand, he looked at Rin and started off back towards Kaede's hut. The bucket was a little heavier than usual and he didn't know why. Maybe it was because he wasn't entirely focused on the bucket he was carrying and more on the girl who was walking next to him with a happy smile.

Rin watched Kohaku as he seemed to concentrate on the bucket and giving her a glance every once in a while. She smiled at how shy he was being and again she couldn't help but think of how cute he seemed. This time, however, she was able to suppress the blush she felt starting to rise in her cheeks. Her mind was suddenly filled with an image she had seen one of the other times she had gone to a village with Lord Sesshomaru's permission.

It was a man and a woman who looked to seem to really like each other, it was obvious in their eyes. And they had their fingers intertwined as the woman leaned against the man. Both of them blushing and looking happily at each other. She flushed even more as she knew that's sort of what she wanted to be like with the boy next to her.

Giving her another side glance, he saw that Rin was blushing again and looked like she was thinking about something important. He decided not to bother her with questions when she seemed so concentrated. After a moment, he turned back forward, though he was still curious as to what the girl was thinking about. It didn't take too long for him to find out. Only a few moments later, he felt the warmth of fingers against his as she gently entwined her fingers with his and leaned her weight lightly against him.

He froze and the sound of the clatter and swoosh of the bucket hitting the ground and all the water spilling onto the floor reached his ears. He didn't realize he had dropped the bucket. Then again, he wasn't really paying too much attention to that. He slowly turned his head to look down at the girl who was now in the process of burying her embarrassed face into his arm.

Rin felt Kohaku freeze and tense up as she held his hand and leaned against him. Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do. Maybe she did something wrong. She didn't want him to hate her now, but she was too embarrassed to let go and instead just hide her face against his arm. She didn't want him to reject her and she was afraid that that was exactly what he was going to do and she felt tears prick the corners of her eyes. She willed herself not to cry and just wait for some sort of response from him. "Wh-what….?" His voice was filled with complete surprise and she couldn't tell if he was angry or not. She trembled the littlest bit, hoping he wasn't mad and that he didn't hate her. She couldn't handle that.

After a moment of nothing, no talking and no movement, Rin felt her heart sink. She really did do something wrong, didn't she? She let a few tears fall, not able to completely restrain them all. It was then she felt a pressure against her hand. She looked down at their hands and saw he had returned the gesture and had squeezed her hand a little bit. Looking up at him, surprised, she saw him blushing bright red and not facing her. Eventually he looked over to her with a small smile and she felt her heart take back its previous action and then some, rising high in her chest. So, she didn't do anything wrong!

Smiling down at Rin, Kohaku saw her grin back up at him. He also saw that her eyes looked a little red, light tear stains on her cheeks. Had she been crying because he didn't answer her action sooner? He felt guilty that his shyness had made her cry. He wanted to apologize for it but didn't know how exactly to do that without actually _saying_ that he was sorry for making her cry. Thinking it over, he finally got an idea and though it was embarrassing to him, it would definitely make up for his previous shyness. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. When he straightened back up, she was just as red as he was, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a small surprised "o". He had to smile at just how cute she seemed at that moment.

The feel of his lips against her cheek was definitely unexpected but far from unpleasant. She just never thought that Kohaku would, well more than just like her back, but actually be willing to do something like that. She blinked at him in surprise as she felt her face heat up. She actually felt warm in the inside too. She felt silly for crying now. She could still feel some of the tears on her cheeks, and she lifted her free hand to wipe them away. She didn't get the chance to, since Kohaku had taken it upon himself to wipe the tears off with his thumb. With that action, she was convinced that she was every bit as happy as the woman she had seen that other time.

"I… I should probably go refill the bucket…" Kohaku informed her in a shy quiet voice. Rin laughed, seeing him back to normal.

"Okay! Let's go back to the river then!" She smiled happily and picked the bucket up from the wet ground with her free hand. Stared back off towards the river, she kept her hand securely entwined with his.

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Kaname found herself starting to wonder about Rin and Kohaku and where they had gone off to. But just by looking at them, she knew that it probably wasn't going to be much longer until one of them said something to the other. Just thinking about it made her giggle.

"What's so funny, Kaname?" Sango asked her friend, a light laugh in her voice.

"Oh, I was just thinking about your brother and Rin. Aren't they so cute together?" She was still smiling at the thought.

"I agree. They really are cute together! I wonder if they're going to say anything to each other," Kagome mused, a thoughtful finger to her chin.

"Well, I know that Kohaku really does like Rin. He tries to hide it but its pretty obvious to me," Sango laughed. After everything, she was pretty observant of her brother's actions and feelings. She knew that at some point the wouldn't be able to hide how he felt from the girl anymore. Maybe it would be sooner rather than later.

Almost as if to answer her thoughts, she spotted Kohaku and Rin walking back from wherever they had gone off to. Even from the distance they were at, their blushes were clearly visible and… they were holding hands!

"Well, would you look at that! It seems like they already did!" Sango smiled happily with a small giggle.

Both Kagome and Kaname hadn't seen the two return and at Sango's words immediately looked in the direction she was looking to see them. It seemed Kohaku noticed all the stares, since his face went even redder and he stopped walking. Rin, whether she noticed or not, didn't change how she acted and just tugged at Kohaku's arm until he started walking again. She seemed pretty cheery from what the girls could see, meaning things had probably worked out pretty well for the two of them. Kaname couldn't help but hope that her own situation worked out, though she had a feeling it would end up being much more complicated than for these two. Rin had managed to tug Kohaku all the way over to the others.

"Congratulations!" Kagome cheered as they approached them and sat down. Rin blinked at her.

"Congratulations for what?" the girl asked, tilting her head to the side. She was still holding onto Kohaku's hand. She was oblivious to the fact that Kohaku knew exactly what Kagome was talking about.

"Kohaku seems to know," Kaname giggled, indicating the boy who was sitting very still and bright red. Rin looked over to him and tilted her head to the side.

"Huh, what are they talking about?" She asked him innocently, staring at him, expecting answer.

Kohaku seemed too embarrassed to even talk and instead squeezed her hand a little bit and lifted their joined hands just enough to let her know what he meant.

Rin was silent for a while as she regarded what he was trying to tell her and suddenly her eyes widened as she understood. "Th-th-that's what you're talking about?" She stuttered out and the three girls laughed.

"You two really are so cute together! I knew it was going to happen sooner or later!" Kagome commented with a big smile. She had seen them interact only a few times before, but her woman's instinct usually wasn't wrong, and definitely not in this case. She giggled as the two of them lapsed into a flushed silence.

"It would be great if every romance was this cute, huh?" Kaname said with the littlest bit of a sigh. No way would she ever expect anything that cute and sweet between her and Sesshomaru. Actually, just imagining him returning her feelings at all was a little beyond her.

"Yeah…." Kagome agreed with a small shake of her head. It wasn't as if her relationship with Inu Yasha was anything but complicated. They had been through too much together and she did love him completely. It just… she had wondered once in a while what it would have been like if their relationship had been different, simple. But in the end she knew she was glad with the way things were. Everything they'd been through strengthened their relationship beyond anything else.

"It would be…" Sango nodded. What she had been through with Miroku was certainly far from the kind of relationship these two had. She had spent so much time denying her own feelings and feeling jealous of any advance Miroku made on any other girl. Even when she first met Kaname, she had hated her a little since Miroku was giving her so much attention. Of course, now Kaname was one of her closest friends and she regretted her first impression. And they were going to be getting married now. Now she wouldn't have to be jealous anymore. Well, as long as Miroku didn't hit on any other girls.

"Big Sister?" Rin said in a bit of a quiet voice, making all of the girls snap out of their thoughts and turn towards her.

"What is it Rin?" Kaname smiled at the girl. She found she was a little jealous of their relationship and felt a little guilty that she did.

"You know, I think… If you tried, you could probably be able to hold hands with Lord Sesshomaru!" The girl giggled at the suggestion. She would be really glad if she could see her "big sister" and her father figure being as happy as she was. And to her, it just made sense if they ended up together like that.

Kaname felt her face heat up and she nearly fell backwards off her seat. Catching herself, however, she just shook her head frantically. "I… I couldn't do that!" Her voice squeaked out. She just couldn't imagine it. How would she get close enough to him to do that? There was no way he could possibly feel the same as her, and even if by some miracle he did, she couldn't see him holding anyone's hand.

"Hey, anything is possible. You did get back here, after all." Kagome informed her with a shrug and a sly smile.

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**A/N:** Okay! Here we are! The much delayed chapter 10! I really had no idea what to do with it, so I just went with this. I hope you liked it! ^^ On another note, there are a few Hetalia fan fictions I want to right and I have no idea how long its going to take to get to them and complete them, since they'll probably just be one/two-shots or something like that, written all at one time, though. But if there are enough reviews and people give me ideas, then maybe I'll get back to this story before I finish those, I don't know… PLEASE GIVE ME IDEAS! I WILL BE ETERNALLY GRATEFUL!


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